You're right, technically they're not doing anything groundbreaking. The difference is that they already have a huge fan base, ridiculous amounts of publicity, and much better UI and pricing than spideroak.

There's a bunch. Some are better than others.

Here's a list, taken from (http://www.kimpl.com/1297/secure-online-backup-file-sync-ser...) which also has some reviews.

(https://www.sugarsync.com/)

(https://www.dropbox.com/)

(https://www.wuala.com/)

(https://www.syncplicity.com/)

(https://mozy.com/)

As others say, there's a difference between syncing and hosting; between levels of security; between ease of use; etc.

And obviously Tarsnap is great, for people who know what they're doing.

(https://www.tarsnap.com/)

They are quite different: MEGA is a web-based file hosting, spideroak is a desktop app that syncs your local files to the cloud for sync&backup.

Spideroak is for your own private storage (+ShareRoom for sharing with a group), MEGA is positioning primarily for filesharing.

Yes, they both use encryption for files without sharing the key with the service provider but that's as far as I'd go with the similarity.

That application has a hilariously bad interface. Imagine how bad their backend is if they can't even add white space between their checkboxes.

http://images.macworld.com/images/article/2012/09/spideroak_...

Have you actually used SpiderOak? While I have tried and tried, I find their interface (OSX and Win) to be utterly and irretrievably confusing.

Oh, common. Encrypted online storage is nothing new, period. It's the proudly extended middle finger that makes all the difference.

the free account will be 50GB.

Also, Tarsnap and Wuala.