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I love Dropbox, but where's the growth potential? They do an amazing job of storage and syncing, and as a user I'd love for them to focus on that. Can they use

I love Dropbox, but where's the growth potential? They do an amazing job of storage and syncing, and as a user I'd love for them to focus on that. Can they use their early success in sync to bootstrap other products? "Evernote" by Dropbox? EDIT> This is an honest question, and I'd appreciate informative replies.

ant6n 9y ago
Replace everybody's hard-drive with a dropbox, shared across every device they own. Why shouldn't they IPO, it's basically the last funding round? Even if they were done growing and ready to start paying dividends now, what would be bad about that?
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  I'm having trouble understanding what the benefits are of going public for Dropbox. Increased financial reporting and the fiduciary duty to shareholders. I suspect, as the article implies "there is increasing pressure to go pubic as investors look to cash out. What features or new products could Dropbox develop with a few hundred million at they couldn't without? I think the investors just want to cash out. If there was huge throw potential wouldn't they continue to raise VC money?
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    Yes VC fund vintages are likely maturing.
nerdwaller 9y ago
I would guess the Enterprise side, granted I'm not sure what/how much they have there. Picture this box[1] that's inside the company firewall... But seriously, they could have on prem, active directory integration, more permissions, user edit tracking/audit logs, etc. My work changed entire email/storage/etc providers almost entirely for the file management system... [1] https://cdn2.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/05/pied-piper-box.png https://cdn2.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/05...
nihonde 9y ago
Dropbox Paper is the best implementation of collaborative text editor that I've ever used. I keep going back to it because it's easy to use. I never use Google Docs because Google's account management systems are such a hassle and I hate Material Design.
- usegolang 9y ago
  While I agree that paper is great, I believe this product stemmed for an acquisition of Hackpad, a company with a nearly identical product. I'm not saying acquisitions can't help them grow, but I wanted to make it clear that this stemmed from an acquisition.
- kwijibob 9y ago
  This is absolutely critical. I have a few hundred gig of old data on a paid dropbox. Some old photos and videos etc. Lots of old Word documents. But everything new I do is on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which I love. All my photos now go to Google Photos. The future seems to be google drive like web apps. Dropbox needs to get into this market. I hope Paper can expand...
usegolang 9y ago
Do they have to? Sync can still be improved a lot, and I think whoever does it best will be able to take over most of the market. Dropbox's Infinite could potentially do that. https://blogs.dropbox.com/business/2016/04/announcing-project-infinite/ https://blogs.dropbox.com/business/2016/04/announcing-projec...
btown 9y ago
Dropbox actually did have other sync products, such as their now-discontinued Firebase-like Datastore API. https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the-sync-and-datastore-apis/ https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the... Their focus is wholly on owning the file management space, with most profit coming from doing so for enterprises. While the Googles and Apples of the world have found significant success in building entire suites of related products and services (including physical), there are plenty of successful public one-trick pony software companies. Dropbox's key has always been the magical quality of their service, and that's as good a reason to be on the focused-side of the spectrum as any.
SREinSF 9y ago
We might get some solid clues when they file their S-1. However I'd venture to say international user growth both Consumer facing and Enterprise. 75% of Dropbox users are located outside the United States. They have invested heavily in expanding their PoPs and in Europe and Asia. https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/19/dropbox-announces-massive-network-expansion/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/19/dropbox-announces-massive-... The last few years Enterprise customers have been a major target. https://www.recode.net/2014/3/20/11624780/dropbox-zeros-in-on-an-enterprise-strategy https://www.recode.net/2014/3/20/11624780/dropbox-zeros-in-o... https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/16/dropboxs-latest-announcement-about-building-enterprise-security-credibility/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/16/dropboxs-latest-announceme... Again S-1 should provide a peek at the rate of adoption. Anecdotally I can share reports of wavering between consumer and enterprise focus.
erikb 9y ago
Nowadays I think IPO means "We honestly don't know how get any more money. Let's just let the public pay us a little more, then move on to other businesses." The strange thing is, that there are still people paying for IPO shares. But as long as they do, why not use it to squeeze the last penny out of the business before starting the next.

ant6n 9y ago

Replace everybody's hard-drive with a dropbox, shared across every device they own. Why shouldn't they IPO, it's basically the last funding round? Even if they were done growing and ready to start paying dividends now, what would be bad about that?

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
I'm having trouble understanding what the benefits are of going public for Dropbox. Increased financial reporting and the fiduciary duty to shareholders. I suspect, as the article implies "there is increasing pressure to go pubic as investors look to cash out. What features or new products could Dropbox develop with a few hundred million at they couldn't without? I think the investors just want to cash out. If there was huge throw potential wouldn't they continue to raise VC money?
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Yes VC fund vintages are likely maturing.

nerdwaller 9y ago

I would guess the Enterprise side, granted I'm not sure what/how much they have there. Picture this box[1] that's inside the company firewall... But seriously, they could have on prem, active directory integration, more permissions, user edit tracking/audit logs, etc. My work changed entire email/storage/etc providers almost entirely for the file management system... [1] https://cdn2.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/05/pied-piper-box.png https://cdn2.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/05...

nihonde 9y ago

Dropbox Paper is the best implementation of collaborative text editor that I've ever used. I keep going back to it because it's easy to use. I never use Google Docs because Google's account management systems are such a hassle and I hate Material Design.

usegolang 9y ago
While I agree that paper is great, I believe this product stemmed for an acquisition of Hackpad, a company with a nearly identical product. I'm not saying acquisitions can't help them grow, but I wanted to make it clear that this stemmed from an acquisition.
kwijibob 9y ago
This is absolutely critical. I have a few hundred gig of old data on a paid dropbox. Some old photos and videos etc. Lots of old Word documents. But everything new I do is on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which I love. All my photos now go to Google Photos. The future seems to be google drive like web apps. Dropbox needs to get into this market. I hope Paper can expand...

usegolang 9y ago

Do they have to? Sync can still be improved a lot, and I think whoever does it best will be able to take over most of the market. Dropbox's Infinite could potentially do that. https://blogs.dropbox.com/business/2016/04/announcing-project-infinite/ https://blogs.dropbox.com/business/2016/04/announcing-projec...

btown 9y ago

Dropbox actually did have other sync products, such as their now-discontinued Firebase-like Datastore API. https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the-sync-and-datastore-apis/ https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the... Their focus is wholly on owning the file management space, with most profit coming from doing so for enterprises. While the Googles and Apples of the world have found significant success in building entire suites of related products and services (including physical), there are plenty of successful public one-trick pony software companies. Dropbox's key has always been the magical quality of their service, and that's as good a reason to be on the focused-side of the spectrum as any.

SREinSF 9y ago

We might get some solid clues when they file their S-1. However I'd venture to say international user growth both Consumer facing and Enterprise. 75% of Dropbox users are located outside the United States. They have invested heavily in expanding their PoPs and in Europe and Asia. https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/19/dropbox-announces-massive-network-expansion/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/19/dropbox-announces-massive-... The last few years Enterprise customers have been a major target. https://www.recode.net/2014/3/20/11624780/dropbox-zeros-in-on-an-enterprise-strategy https://www.recode.net/2014/3/20/11624780/dropbox-zeros-in-o... https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/16/dropboxs-latest-announcement-about-building-enterprise-security-credibility/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/16/dropboxs-latest-announceme... Again S-1 should provide a peek at the rate of adoption. Anecdotally I can share reports of wavering between consumer and enterprise focus.

erikb 9y ago

Nowadays I think IPO means "We honestly don't know how get any more money. Let's just let the public pay us a little more, then move on to other businesses." The strange thing is, that there are still people paying for IPO shares. But as long as they do, why not use it to squeeze the last penny out of the business before starting the next.