By the spring of 2000, less than a year after launching, Napster had more than 10 million users.30 By the end of 2000, Napster could claim more users than even mighty AOL: around 40 million. And instead of taking more than a decade and billions of dollars to do so, Napster had attracted that many users on the backs of half a dozen barely postpubescent hackers and about $400,000 worth of hardware.
