BitTorrent (protocol)
Inception: July 2001
NASDAQ: Not Publicly Traded
Reasons for success:
- Difficult to track pirated content
- Relatively anonymous sharing
- Fast
Peer-to-peer file sharing networks were all the rage until the music industry started suing people over pirated music. Enter Bram Cohen and his scheme to connect users without a central hub and distribute files in pieces, to eliminate the ability to track, identify or prosecute users that share pirated music. There are over 100 million active monthly users.
