RapidShare was founded by Christian Schmid in Mulheim, Germany, initially as ezShare later Rapid Share, a file hosting service for his RapidForum web forum hosting services.[2] In 2004, he started the company RapidShare AG, which went online in August 2004[3] then moved its premises to Baar, Switzerland in 2006.[4] Schmid avoids the public eye, but took over management of the company after longtime CEO and COO Bobby Chang left in April 2010.[5]