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I'm not sure how Box has managed to burn so much cash the past few years, or how they manage to still lose money with revenues of 300m. Post-IPO one would think

by rrggrr 10y ago

I'm not sure how Box has managed to burn so much cash the past few years, or how they manage to still lose money with revenues of 300m. Post-IPO one would think there might be an incentive to be profitable, particularly when large customer risk assessment includes the financial health of the provider.

niftich 10y ago
They had neither the first-mover advantage (Dropbox), nor massive cash reserves to offer storage at a loss just to compete with Dropbox (Google, Microsoft). They flew out to every single conference about everything to promote Box to people who kept asking, "oh, so you're like Dropbox?"; they bought a bunch of S3 but then they started building their own backend [1], and literally paid people to make 'apps' for their 'platform' [2]. They were always going to have to burn a ton of cash to catch up and it's actually kind of remarkable that they're still around. [1] https://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/why-cloud-storage-startup-box-is-considering-openstack-over-amazon-s3/ https://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/why-cloud-storage-startup-box-... [2] https://gigaom.com/2013/06/06/box-to-pay-mobile-app-developers-based-on-use-so-customers-stick-around/ https://gigaom.com/2013/06/06/box-to-pay-mobile-app-develope...
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Box.net was available before Dropbox.
  - niftich 10y ago
    Yes, Box was founded in 2005 [1] and launched in 2006 [2], while Dropbox was founded two years later in 2007 [3], and launched in 2008 [4]. But it's undisputed that Dropbox achieved name recognition and popularity before Box did. Therefore, despite dating chronologically later, Dropbox was able to execute better and earlier than Box, and claiming first-mover advantage. [1] https://www.box.com/about-us/leadership https://www.box.com/about-us/leadership [2] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/box https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/box [3] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dropbox https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dropbox [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)
    - maxerickson 10y ago
      Okay, but I think "first mover" is a poor description of a company that came later and executed better. It even seems to undermine the utility of the concept, if people looking backward just assign the moniker to whichever company succeeded.
      - PudgePacket 10y ago
        Well, it does have 'move' in the word. It you're first and don't 'move'... well :) I've never heard of box til this post and I've used dropbox for years.
  - antoniuschan99 10y ago
    https://techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/ https://techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/

by rrggrr 10y ago

niftich 10y ago

They had neither the first-mover advantage (Dropbox), nor massive cash reserves to offer storage at a loss just to compete with Dropbox (Google, Microsoft). They flew out to every single conference about everything to promote Box to people who kept asking, "oh, so you're like Dropbox?"; they bought a bunch of S3 but then they started building their own backend [1], and literally paid people to make 'apps' for their 'platform' [2]. They were always going to have to burn a ton of cash to catch up and it's actually kind of remarkable that they're still around. [1] https://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/why-cloud-storage-startup-box-is-considering-openstack-over-amazon-s3/ https://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/why-cloud-storage-startup-box-... [2] https://gigaom.com/2013/06/06/box-to-pay-mobile-app-developers-based-on-use-so-customers-stick-around/ https://gigaom.com/2013/06/06/box-to-pay-mobile-app-develope...

maxerickson 10y ago
Box.net was available before Dropbox.
- niftich 10y ago
  Yes, Box was founded in 2005 [1] and launched in 2006 [2], while Dropbox was founded two years later in 2007 [3], and launched in 2008 [4]. But it's undisputed that Dropbox achieved name recognition and popularity before Box did. Therefore, despite dating chronologically later, Dropbox was able to execute better and earlier than Box, and claiming first-mover advantage. [1] https://www.box.com/about-us/leadership https://www.box.com/about-us/leadership [2] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/box https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/box [3] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dropbox https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dropbox [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    Okay, but I think "first mover" is a poor description of a company that came later and executed better. It even seems to undermine the utility of the concept, if people looking backward just assign the moniker to whichever company succeeded.
    - PudgePacket 10y ago
      Well, it does have 'move' in the word. It you're first and don't 'move'... well :) I've never heard of box til this post and I've used dropbox for years.
- antoniuschan99 10y ago
  https://techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/ https://techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/