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Why is there so much talk about hypotheses and market validation in the article when the product is a straight up clone of WeTransfer almost down to the name?
by WJW 6y ago
Why is there so much talk about hypotheses and market validation in the article when the product is a straight up clone of WeTransfer almost down to the name?
For those who don't know: compare the visual design of https://www.dropbox.com/transfer https://www.dropbox.com/transfer with the design of https://wetransfer.com/ https://wetransfer.com/. Design and location of key elements are super similar.
- DandyDev 6y agoThe author is happy to answer questions unless they're somewhat embarrassing
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y agoThe author answered the question, and did so before you remarked on it.
- nicksundin 6y agoRight, this is a really good question. Dropbox Transfer achieves the same purpose as WeTransfer with a few differentiators. Unpacking this a bit, there are two parts here: 1) For a company with an established sharing model (shared folder, live-updating links), a departure or addition to this needs to be thoughtfully orchestrated. Moving to snapshotting content, gathering content inside and outside your Dropbox, and enforcing expiration in this tool is a very different paradigm. 2) However, specifically because we are also a storage provider, we can provide a much faster sending experience for them as we can remove the upload step, which is especially important for folks sending really large files. We have a large user base storing their content in Dropbox, this is a net new added value/functionality for them.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- txcwpalpha 6y agoEven if the internal discussions were "other services do this and we want a piece of that pie", no company is going to come out in a product launch announcement and directly say "another service is doing this and we want a piece of that pie". And in this case, I would still hope they did do market validation internally, even if it is just a copy of wetransfer. Just because some other company is doing something doesn't automatically mean it's a good fit for your company to do it, too. As for the design, it's pretty hard to say that "a generic file selection panel in the middle of a page and a Sign Up button at the top right of the page where it typically is on most sites" is a "straight up clone". The color schemes are similar, but that's just because the main color branding of both companies happens to be light blue.