Mega (stylised as MEGA) is a

file hosting service A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker, is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allow users to upload files that can be accessed o ...

offered by Mega Cloud Services Limited, a company based in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, and owned by

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

–based Cloud Tech Services Limited. The service is offered through web-based apps. MEGA

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

s are also available for Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Data encryption

Files hosted on MEGA are end-to-end encrypted. As a result, the company cannot decrypt or view the content, and cannot be responsible for the contents of uploaded files. In the first few weeks after the MEGA launch, various security problems were found that researchers said an attacker could use to gain access to a logged-in user's files. In response, MEGA started a vulnerability reward program, offering a reward of up to €10,000 for reporting security problems.

History

MEGA was launched by

Kim Dotcom Kim Dotcom (né Schmitz; born 21 January 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a Finnish-German Internet entrepreneur and political activist who lives in Glenorchy, New Zealand. He rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s as a ha ...

in 2013 as a cloud service and successor to Megaupload. On 4 July 2013, the MEGA Android application was released on the

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

marketplace. Four days later, on 8 July 2013, the MEGA

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

(SDK) and

affiliate program Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of per ...

was released. On 4 September 2013, Kim Dotcom stepped down as Director of MEGA so he could pursue his political ambitions with the Internet Party. In a later interview with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' on 7 September, Kim Dotcom announced MEGA was getting 20,000 signups for the service every day. Furthermore, in 2013 MEGA was receiving about 100

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

takedowns per day. On 26 November 2013, the official MEGA

application was released on the

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

marketplace. On 20 January 2014, the official MEGAsync application was released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and on 6 September 2014, the official MEGAsync application was released for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. In January 2016, MEGA announced that the service has 35 million registered users that have uploaded 12 billion files. Later in 2016, MEGA Ltd. released the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

to their client-side software under the Mega Limited Code Review License, a

source-available Source-available software is software released through a source code distribution model that includes arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting the criteria to be called ''open-source ...

software license A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Since the 1970s, software copyright has been recognized in the United States. Despite the copyright being recognized, most companies prefer to sell lic ...

, on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

. This allows independent verification of the correctness and integrity of the implementation of MEGA's cryptographic model and service reliability. In 2021, MEGA added a domain name to include Mega.io and Mega.nz.

Services

MEGA offers three types of accounts: free accounts, paid accounts, and business accounts.

MEGA Cloud Storage

MEGA's major product is its zero-knowledge encrypted cloud storage. Users can store files with encryption that cannot be accessed by MEGA. This is due to files being zero-knowledge encrypted and users are the only ones who hold their respective keys.

MEGA VPN

In December 2023, MEGA announced a new product to help users protect their privacy while online – MEGA VPN. Full launch was announced in August 2024. MEGA VPN is available on iOS, MacOS, Windows and Android. This is available in a personal paid subscription and a standalone price.

MEGA Backup

In November 2022, MEGA launched a backup feature. MEGA Backup is a one-way sync, from the user's computer to MEGA. Once set up, MEGA automatically copies selected folders and files from the user to MEGA. Any changes a user makes to backed-up files on a local drive will automatically be made to the MEGA files stored in their cloud in real time. Additionally, users can view and recover backed-up files that have been deleted from a local drive, and as of 2024, users can recover older versions of backed-up files with a �
rewind
�� feature. This feature is currently only available to paid subscription users.

MEGA S4 Object Storage

In December 2024 MEGA released their new "S4" (Simple Secure Storage Service) through their Pro Flex plan. Initial information suggests that this product supports an S3 protocol compatible API targeting freelancers, startups and individual developers.

MEGA Chat

In February 2013, MEGA announced it would be expanding into e-mail, chat, voice, video, and mobile. In December 2014, MEGA said it would "soon" launch a browser-based chat service. In mid-January 2015, MEGA launched MEG Chat in

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

, marketed as a web-based, encrypted alternative to applications like

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

and

FaceTime FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facin ...

. MEGA Chat has since been launched across all platforms and is available as an end-to-end encrypted chat alternative. This supports chat, voice and video calling.

MEGA Meetings

Over 2022 MEGA launched a new video conferencing product that enables people to have encrypted meetings with up to 100 users. This has been further enhanced in 2023 with the ability to schedule meetings via a calendar feature. In 2024 further features have been launched like waiting rooms, call recording and quality of life updates like muting and audio/video improvements. Raise to speak was also announced as an upcoming enhancement.

Browser extension

On 5 September 2018, it was reported that the extension on the

Chrome Web Store Web Store is Google's online store for its Chrome web browser. As of 2024, Chrome Web Store hosts about 138,000 extensions and 33,000 themes. History Chrome Web Store was publicly unveiled in December 2010, and was opened on February 11, 20 ...

was compromised by the addition of code designed to steal website credentials and cryptocurrency. The original code on the GitHub page was not affected.

References

External links

* {{File hosting service Cloud storage File hosting File sharing services Internet properties established in 2013 Kim Dotcom Internet technology companies of New Zealand New Zealand brands New Zealand websites New Zealand companies established in 2013 Computer companies established in 2013