Controversial internet entrepreneur and founder of Megaupload Kim Dotcom has launched Mega, a new filesharing site.

The new service started operating on Saturday, January 19, exactly one year after the previous site was shut down on grounds of copyright infringement.

Dotcom has stated that free users will be able to access up to 50 GB of storage, protected from third party access, with a home page tagline of 'The Privacy Company'. Notably, the 'About Us' section boasts: "Unlike most of our competitors, we use a state of the art browser based encryption technology where you, not us, control the keys."

According to Dotcom's Twitter, the site took on "100,000 registered users in less than 1 hour".

The German-Finnish tycoon celebrated the launch of the new service this weekend in New Zealand, his adopted home. The Huffington Post offered an insight into the event: "In Dotcom's typical grandiose style, the launch party featured a tongue-in-cheek re-enactment of the dramatic raid on his home a year earlier, when New Zealand police swooped down in helicopters onto the mansion grounds and nabbed him in a safe room where he was hiding.

"'Mega is going to be huge, and nothing will stop Mega – whoo!' a gleeful Dotcom bellowed from a giant stage set up in his yard, seconds before a helicopter roared overhead and faux police agents rappelled down the side of his mansion. Dotcom eventually ordered everyone to 'stop this madness!' before breaking out into a dance alongside miniskirt-clad 'guards' as music boomed."

FACT note that Mega is set to be followed by two new services, Megabox, a platform for artists to sell their work directly to users, and Megakey, “ad supported plugin for free music”.