back to article Kim Dotcom flails desperately, launches chat service

Kim Dotcom has set off on his new service to challenge Skype and other video platforms. The Megaupload boss has put forth the beta release of his MegaChat service with a Tweet: #MegaChat beta step by step. Starting with video calling today. Text chat & video conferencing will follow soon. — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 22 …

  1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Flop

    The flopping sound you hear is this falling on its face.

    Chat is an extremely crowded mature market. I do not see how a new player can even dent the monopoly of something like Google Talk. The fact that most Tier 2 chat providers have met their maker over the last 2 years speaks volumes :)

    1. Charles Manning

      His last web effort

      Getting NZers to sign up and pledge to vote (preferably for his party).

      432 starry-eyed people pledged. Dotbomb predicted tens of thousands.

      His predictions are likely way off this time too.

      Online comms is very crowded. Having to deal with both Skype and Google is already too many.

      You can't realistically add more players unless they inter-operate like phones do,

  2. akeane
    Alert

    Error Alert!

    Dear Register,

    I noticed in your recent kim.com article, you have mistakenly

    attributed a picture of the Baron Harkonnen to the aforementioned

    domain name fellow.

    Please can you remedy this unfortunate oversight as such imagery

    may offend the eye.

    Disgusted,

    Tunbridge Wells

  3. Mark 85

    Misplaced zeros?

    Really, 15 million already? Just folks testing or playing with it, or manipulated numbers? A quick look at his Twitter shows a lot of hype... so maybe that worked.

    I would imagine that 5-eyes were some of the first to download just start tearing into the encryption.

    1. Joe 48

      Re: Misplaced zeros?

      10,000,000 are his Mum....

      Can't stand this chap. Don't wish failure on many people... He's on the list though.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Misplaced zeros?

      Perhaps they forget to switch on captchas for the sign-up process?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Misplaced zeros?

      I'm a registered user. I keep my working set of books there. Now they don't show up in advertising links as they do with another couple of services every knows (and have demonstrated an interest in what I read/reference). Yeah, Kim's an narcissistic bastard but since I resemble that as well, it's pretty amusing. If you can't laugh at yourself....

  4. Aoyagi Aichou
    Windows

    Skype alternative?

    I would love some Skype alternative, especially considering the latest development of the once good service/client. But MegaChat is in-browser, that's not very practical. Would any of you happen to know of some service that could do IM and voice calls? I don't really care about video calls (never seen anyone intentionally use it) or mobile clients.

    Ideally something where Microsoft, Google, Apple or Facebook aren't involved.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Skype alternative?

      https://www.nomado.eu/ seems pretty good for voice. I haven't looked to see if they do IM.

    2. wikkity

      Re: MegaChat is in-browser, that's not very practical

      I'd have thought the exact opposite, much more practical than have bespoke clients installed on every device that I may want to use. If you really need a native app I'm sure there are/will be plenty of browser wrapper apps out there.

      Ok, so most of the names you mentioned are involved with WebRTC buts thats just at the standard level, plenty of implementations to choose from.

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: MegaChat is in-browser, that's not very practical

        With a web-based chat service, you need to contact the other person off-band to get them to visit the web page before you can call them. Chat services need to run in the background all the time if they are to be of any use.

  5. Mario Becroft
    Thumb Up

    Mega is actually decent

    I've used his online file storage/sharing service to store and transfer large video files between project members and it is simple, fast and effective.

    Not sure why everyone is no negative on it.

    If the chat client is equally simple and effective then I can see it gaining traction against overcomplicated, incsecure products in the market.

    1. photobod

      Re: Mega is actually decent

      Me too, for video and picture files for my clients. Frankly, I trust it more than anything US hosted, even for files which do not contain anything particularly confidential.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mega is actually decent

      Bit of an odd choice - sharing private videos in a site run by a crew whose primary income derived from video piracy...

  6. ukgnome

    Is it just me?

    Or does Kim Dotcom look like Dr Robotnik?

  7. Bogle

    In browser

    Not required. WebRTC is now available via Firefox [https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/hello/] or Chrome [https://apprtc.appspot.com/]. Free, P2P, encrypted video chat rooms.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: In browser

      Is Chrome a good choice if one's concerned about privacy of one's content/contacts? Not an issue here, I have separate machines and browsers for isolating context but for monoculture browsing it's concerning.

      Edit: And thank you kindly for those links. Perhaps I'll join the 'modern world' and actually do video someday.

  8. DocJames
    Headmaster

    Excessive punctuation

    According to Dotcom,,

    Has he added a comma after his name to go with the Dot at the beginning? Or are El Reg scrimping on the subeditors?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You know how cars all look the same under a foot of snow?

    Same thing with fat people

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon