Interview With Bobby Chang – COO of RapidShare

By: Michael Dunlop     Topics: Entrepreneur Interviews

Bobby is the COO of Rapidshare, one of the worlds most visited websites, with an Alexa ranking of just 15! Bobby takes his time to share with us what its like to run Rapidshare and some of the ideas behind it, a great interview with a very clever man!Background information on Bobby:

I live in Switzerland and I am 39 now. My motivation is the thrilling times we live in and especially what the internet has made possible over the last 20 years. Nowadays everyone is connected, you can drop me an email and we can share thoughts. That’s just great isn´t it? To be part of that revolution is just thrilling.

1) Tell us about your main project, RapidGames ?

With RapidGames we can provide patches, trailers and demos through a very fast platform. Many users like to pick up their patches through us if everything else is congested. We intend to extend the entertainment part of our website, the next step will be the launch of RapidMovie.

7) I understand that you use over 4,5 Pet bytes of Storage on your servers, could you give us a incite into having host one of the largest websites in the world?

The servers are hosted in professional data centers with high security measures, redundancy and all that. Just like any other professional system. They are run on a proprietary OS that was developed especially for one-click-hosting. It is a very lean and efficient system and I guess that’s the key to speed and availability.

8) Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I think it is both. You must have it in your blood and you must be willing to learn through mistakes. And you need to be tough and endure flops.

9) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on? (You can name more than one)

Steve Jobs. I think he is a great man and has created great things. And what is more, he has always hit the nerve of the consumer.

10) Do you have any favourite business related or entrepreneur related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Not really. My advice is not to read books, but set up a business instead and learn from mistakes to be more successful next time.

11) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Enjoy your job and spend time to develop your business – then you will be successful.

12) What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

Listen to what others say, but always decide for yourself, because it is you who has to live with the consequences in the end. If you have to lend money, be careful not to loose your independence.

13) How many hours do you work daily and what are your daily tasks for your sites?

I do not really separate on- and off-time. In a way I am always working, which does not mean I never go on holidays of course. And there is no routine day really. I take care of our support and the abuse department, discuss business development and look for new partners, talk to journalists and speak on conferences, just the technical side of the business is managed by someone else.

14) If the Internet had not existed – what do you think you would be doing?

If the Internet did not exist, I would surely work on creating it.

15) What do you like best about the Internet?

Free access to information, whatever you are looking for, the internet will have the answer. That’s one thing. The other one is that you can find people sharing your ideas and having similar problems around the globe very easily. That´s great and makes innovation so much faster these days.

16) What do you like least about the Internet?

If I cannot connect to it.

17) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

My private plans are having a family with two kids and a nice house.