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The phrase “made fortunes out of thin air” is catchy, but misleading. The internet made distribution cheap and global; it did not remove the need for coding, writing, audience-building, intellectual property, timing or risk.
A December 2014 TheRichest list supplied the original “10 Internet Millionaires” framing. The surviving coverage reliably identifies six names, not the complete ten-name roster. Rather than invent four unverified entries, this article examines the six traceable cases and labels what each figure actually measures: revenue, profit, income, estimated holdings or market value.
What “internet millionaire” means here
These cases are not directly comparable. A millionaire label may refer to cumulative earnings, a year of income, estimated net worth, a business’s value or an asset balance at a particular market price. None of the private-wealth figures below is a complete, audited personal balance sheet.
The historical source base is mainly 2014 reporting. Audience counts, app downloads, advertising rates and cryptocurrency prices have changed since then, so every number is dated and qualified.
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The six traceable fortunes
1. Perez Hilton: celebrity attention converted into advertising
Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., known as Perez Hilton, built a celebrity-gossip site that began as PageSixSixSix.com and became PerezHilton.com. Its model was traffic-driven publishing: gossip and commentary attracted readers, which could be monetized through advertising, appearances and broader media work.
A 2014 Rediff summary reported approximately eight million daily views at the time. That is a historical traffic claim, not proof of current reach or personal wealth. Page views became money only through ad sales and related media work; traffic itself was not cash.
Evidence: historical third-party report, not an audited net-worth figure. Rediff’s 2014 summary.
2. Allen Wong: a utility app scaled through app stores
Wong created 5-0 Radio Police Scanner, an app that let users listen to police-radio broadcasts. The same historical coverage estimated 15–20 million downloads and cited Wong saying in a Reddit AMA that he earned a seven-figure annual income.
That is a self-reported income claim, not a disclosed net worth. The app’s economics depended on Apple and Google distribution, user demand and advertising or other app monetization. Free downloads would not automatically produce millions without a revenue mechanism.
Evidence: download estimate and self-reported annual income in contemporary secondary reporting. Rediff.
3. Amanda Hocking: a backlist sold directly to readers
Hocking wrote novels while working in a group home and began self-publishing ebooks in 2010. A contemporary account said she sold more than one million copies of nine books and earned about $2 million from sales within a year.
The important mechanism was not simply “Amazon made her rich.” Digital retailers removed traditional publishing gatekeepers, while genre fiction, a high-output schedule and a growing catalog gave readers multiple books to buy. A backlist is more durable than a single viral hit, although royalties still depend on retailer terms, prices, taxes and production costs.
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4. Brad Colburn (The Rad Brad): personality-led YouTube scale
Brad Colburn recorded video-game playthroughs with humorous commentary. The historical report listed more than 756 million views and over 3.17 million subscribers at the time, and cited a Business Insider estimate of roughly $137,000 to $1.38 million in annual earnings.
Those were snapshots and a broad estimate, not a payslip. YouTube income varies with viewer geography, advertiser demand, seasonality, monetized-view share, copyright claims, sponsorships and platform revenue share. Gross advertising estimates are not take-home pay.
Evidence: historical audience counts and a third-party earnings range. Rediff.
5. Satoshi Nakamoto: estimated Bitcoin holdings, not a salary
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by Bitcoin’s creator or creators. Contemporary coverage repeated an estimate of approximately one million bitcoins and valued those coins at about $1.1 billion in December 2013.
This is a fundamentally different kind of fortune. It is estimated ownership of a scarce digital asset, valued at a particular market price—not earned income or cash in a bank. The one-million-coin estimate is probabilistic; Nakamoto’s identity, access to the keys and ability or willingness to sell remain unverified in the cited coverage. Bitcoin’s price volatility means the dollar value can change dramatically.
Evidence: widely repeated historical estimate, not a confirmed wallet statement or realized proceeds. Rediff.
6. Nguyen Ha Dong (Dong Nguyen): Flappy Bird and the economics of virality
Nguyen released Flappy Bird on May 24, 2013. It became globally popular in early 2014 and was reported as the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in late January. Nguyen reportedly said advertising revenue reached about $50,000 per day at the peak.
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Later Vietnamese reporting also discussed a purported tax payment, illustrating why app revenue, profit and taxable income should not be treated as interchangeable. Tuoi Tre on the reported earnings and removal; VOV on the tax report; Tuoi Tre on the list’s lineage.
What the numbers actually represent
| Case | Reported figure | What it measures | Confidence and limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perez Hilton | About 8 million daily views | Historical audience scale | Third-party report; views do not equal wealth |
| Allen Wong | 15–20 million downloads; seven-figure annual income claim | Usage and self-reported income | No precise net worth disclosed |
| Amanda Hocking | Over 1 million book sales; about $2 million in a year | Reported sales and earnings | Secondary attribution; not audited here |
| The Rad Brad | 756 million-plus views; 3.17 million-plus subscribers; $137,000–$1.38 million estimate | Historical audience and estimated annual earnings | Platform estimates vary; gross is not take-home |
| Satoshi Nakamoto | About 1 million BTC; valued near $1.1 billion in December 2013 | Estimated holdings and dated market value | Probabilistic ownership; not realized cash |
| Nguyen Ha Dong | About $50,000 per day at peak; roughly $3 million profit over 60 days reported | Peak advertising claim and secondary profit estimate | Historical, unattributed to audited accounts |
Why these stories were unusual
Cheap global distribution
Blogs, ebooks, apps and videos could reach worldwide audiences without a newspaper press, bookstore chain or television network. That lowered distribution costs, but discovery still required search, social sharing, platform recommendations or sustained promotion.
Attention had to connect to a payment system
- Page views became advertising inventory for Perez Hilton.
- Book sales became retailer-paid royalties for Hocking.
- Video views became advertising and sponsorship opportunities for Colburn.
- App usage could support advertising or purchases for Wong and Nguyen.
- Bitcoin holdings gained value through an open market rather than ad sales.
Virality is not the same as a durable business
Flappy Bird shows how a sudden hit can produce extraordinary attention without becoming a stable long-term company. Hocking’s catalog and Colburn’s expanding video library had more repeatable inventory. All remained exposed to retailer, app-store, advertising or platform-policy changes.
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The infrastructure behind the “solo” success
None of these fortunes appeared without support. App stores handled distribution and payments; ebook retailers handled storefronts and royalties; YouTube supplied hosting, discovery and monetization; ad exchanges converted attention into money; cloud services and payment networks carried the workload. A creator may have worked alone publicly while relying on a large digital infrastructure.
What readers should—and should not—copy
- Look for a scarce digital asset: a useful app, a catalog, distinctive media or code.
- Understand unit economics: downloads, views and followers matter only when linked to ads, sales, subscriptions or licensing.
- Prefer owned durability: a backlist, email list, intellectual property or diversified distribution is safer than one algorithm.
- Treat viral attention as an option, not a plan: a spike can disappear or overwhelm the creator.
- Separate gross from personal wealth: subtract platform fees, production, staff, taxes, refunds, legal costs and marketing before calling revenue a fortune.
Why this is not a verified ten-person ranking
Vietnamese news outlets identified TheRichest as the source of a December 2014 “10 Internet Millionaires Who Made Fortunes Out of Thin Air” list, while Rediff published a related five-person version in August 2014. The surviving accessible coverage does not reliably expose all ten original names. The four missing names should not be filled with people borrowed from unrelated internet-rich lists or presented as part of the 2014 article without an archived copy.
That limitation matters because ranking by estimated net worth would mix volatile assets, private finances, audience indicators and earnings estimates as though they were the same thing.
The Bottom Line
The internet made distribution cheap, not success effortless. These six cases combined a digital asset or audience with a monetization system at a moment when online platforms were unusually open—and their reported fortunes range from documented sales claims to highly uncertain estimates.
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