5 ms·

I think the best example is when Dropbox was announced and how many people scoffed at the triviality of cloning data around.

by dagmx 6y ago

ekianjo 6y ago
Does not mean that the scoffing is wrong every time.
- grifball 6y ago
  If there were an easy indicator of justified scoffing, investing would be a lot easier.
- yccs27 6y ago
  Well, is there some _specific_ reason to scoff now? I'm not saying that's the case here. Maybe their business is actually a widget. I'm saying that most businesses do far more than you can see from the outside.
barbazoo 6y ago
For me that's still what it's best at and what it should focus on. "Paper", Signatures, Password, to me that feels like they're desperately trying to find something to not just be a reliable external hard drive for people. Oh and of course their number one ambition, trying to convince me to upgrade to whatever more expensive plan they have.
- VBprogrammer 6y ago
  Dropbox could have carved out a niche for itself as a platform for backup and sharing of files. However, the amount of investment capital doesn't allow them to be just a successful medium sized enterprise.
  - scubbo 6y ago
    > Dropbox could have carved out a niche for itself as a platform for backup and sharing of files Serious question - hasn't it? I know there are other players in the space, but it's absolutely the #1 solution I think of.
    - VBprogrammer 6y ago
      Absolutely, but my point was it can't stop there. It has to keep trying a whole bunch of stuff to try to become more than just that.
    - jhickok 6y ago
      Being the best in a completely commodified area is tough, especially when that solution set is thrown in for free in the world's most popular productivity platforms-- Office 365.
- rchaud 6y ago
  They don't have a choice. They're publicly traded now, so they have to be more than a cloud drive.
- pradn 6y ago
  Dropbox has the best sync clients, but that's not enough to save them from being a commodity. Dead-simple and reliable sync seems like a nice-to-have that isn't going to save them from the incredibly large footprint the likes of Microsoft already have in enterprise markets. An IT purchaser might not care much about the usability difference between OneDrive and DropBox (which I'm not even sure exists since the last time I used both.)
  - yarcob 6y ago
    Have they solved the CPU usage problems? Dropbox caused serious CPU spikes during backups, and when they didn't fix it for years I moved away.
    - pradn 6y ago
      I don't notice any special CPU issues with the Dropbox client.
- sjg007 6y ago
  Dropbox needs to think of what apps you can build on top of it and let people build those apps. They are a data lake. Enable advanced analytics and ML etc... Easy peasy.
phoobahr 6y ago
"when Dropbox was announced" This. Whenever someone quips "that's a feature not a product" the reply should be "so why were they able to ship this feature and you weren't". Technical debt, opportunity cost(s), mission focus are all opportunities for arbitrage.
- ipaddr 6y ago
  I think the discussion was always sure you can release a feature product and find success. One you reach a certain level bigger players will incorporate your features and you will cease to exist. Being able to breakout of that feature product into an expanded ecosystem before your product becomes a feature of a bigger platform is the real end game.
FlyingSnake 6y ago
Apples to oranges. Dropbox wasn’t complementing some other platforms core functionality that can be blocked by drop of a hat API change.
dehrmann 6y ago
Dropbox is in a weird place right now because its free tier is too small, the pair tier is too big and expensive, a $5 tier doesn't work financially, and Google, Microsoft, and Apple offer 80% as good solutions with 2.5x as much space for free. For corporate customers, again, they're probably Exchange or GSuite shops, so they can use one of those storage providers. Dropbox addresses a real problem, it's just that the triviality of a business copying it means it became table stakes on a lot of platforms.
- snowwrestler 6y ago
  Dropbox’s killer app is: simply working. I have access to and use both Google Drive and O365 One Drive at work and it is shocking how often I have problems with them. To be clear, my expected rate of problems for this functionality is “never.” The only service I have that experience with is Dropbox. With GDrive and One Drive I have seen folders lose sync, files get stuck syncing, and inexplicable conflicts. In addition, sharing outside my org is way easier and more reliable with Dropbox. I agree that copying files around seems like it should be trivial. Somehow it’s not, though. I don’t have an explanation, just observations from trying to get real work done on a Mac.
  - donnythecroc 6y ago
    This. From day one I still never had an issue with Dropbox. Icloud and one drive - constant problems.
chaostheory 6y ago
Everyone said it was a dead startup based on a feature. They were wrong.
908B64B197 6y ago
Nerds used to large corporate networks/university ones pretty much all had access to shared drives that "just worked" in the OS file browser. The magic of DropBox was that non-technical users could just share that word document, have it everywhere and not have to deal with a weird terminal. I wished Drobox built a (physicals, why not) wall at their HQ with the names of everyone who was able to miraculously recover their masters/phd thesis after hardware failure because they saved it in their Dropbox folder.
jokethrowaway 6y ago
TBH I never understood the appeal of dropbox, drive, mega, etc Is it the UI? Is it keeping your data safe? Is it the sync? I never used their native applications because I hate constant syncing for no reason and running proprietary apps (especially if they're always on), but I use some of their free tiers to store stuff. If I had to pay I'd just buy some space on some server at the cheapest price per gb there is.

I think the best example is when Dropbox was announced and how many people scoffed at the triviality of cloning data around.

by dagmx 6y ago

I think the best example is when Dropbox was announced and how many people scoffed at the triviality of cloning data around.

ekianjo 6y ago

Does not mean that the scoffing is wrong every time.

grifball 6y ago
If there were an easy indicator of justified scoffing, investing would be a lot easier.
yccs27 6y ago
Well, is there some _specific_ reason to scoff now? I'm not saying that's the case here. Maybe their business is actually a widget. I'm saying that most businesses do far more than you can see from the outside.

barbazoo 6y ago

For me that's still what it's best at and what it should focus on. "Paper", Signatures, Password, to me that feels like they're desperately trying to find something to not just be a reliable external hard drive for people. Oh and of course their number one ambition, trying to convince me to upgrade to whatever more expensive plan they have.

VBprogrammer 6y ago
Dropbox could have carved out a niche for itself as a platform for backup and sharing of files. However, the amount of investment capital doesn't allow them to be just a successful medium sized enterprise.
- scubbo 6y ago
  > Dropbox could have carved out a niche for itself as a platform for backup and sharing of files Serious question - hasn't it? I know there are other players in the space, but it's absolutely the #1 solution I think of.
  - VBprogrammer 6y ago
    Absolutely, but my point was it can't stop there. It has to keep trying a whole bunch of stuff to try to become more than just that.
  - jhickok 6y ago
    Being the best in a completely commodified area is tough, especially when that solution set is thrown in for free in the world's most popular productivity platforms-- Office 365.
rchaud 6y ago
They don't have a choice. They're publicly traded now, so they have to be more than a cloud drive.
pradn 6y ago
Dropbox has the best sync clients, but that's not enough to save them from being a commodity. Dead-simple and reliable sync seems like a nice-to-have that isn't going to save them from the incredibly large footprint the likes of Microsoft already have in enterprise markets. An IT purchaser might not care much about the usability difference between OneDrive and DropBox (which I'm not even sure exists since the last time I used both.)
- yarcob 6y ago
  Have they solved the CPU usage problems? Dropbox caused serious CPU spikes during backups, and when they didn't fix it for years I moved away.
  - pradn 6y ago
    I don't notice any special CPU issues with the Dropbox client.
sjg007 6y ago
Dropbox needs to think of what apps you can build on top of it and let people build those apps. They are a data lake. Enable advanced analytics and ML etc... Easy peasy.

phoobahr 6y ago

"when Dropbox was announced" This. Whenever someone quips "that's a feature not a product" the reply should be "so why were they able to ship this feature and you weren't". Technical debt, opportunity cost(s), mission focus are all opportunities for arbitrage.

ipaddr 6y ago
I think the discussion was always sure you can release a feature product and find success. One you reach a certain level bigger players will incorporate your features and you will cease to exist. Being able to breakout of that feature product into an expanded ecosystem before your product becomes a feature of a bigger platform is the real end game.

FlyingSnake 6y ago

Apples to oranges. Dropbox wasn’t complementing some other platforms core functionality that can be blocked by drop of a hat API change.

dehrmann 6y ago

Dropbox is in a weird place right now because its free tier is too small, the pair tier is too big and expensive, a $5 tier doesn't work financially, and Google, Microsoft, and Apple offer 80% as good solutions with 2.5x as much space for free. For corporate customers, again, they're probably Exchange or GSuite shops, so they can use one of those storage providers. Dropbox addresses a real problem, it's just that the triviality of a business copying it means it became table stakes on a lot of platforms.

snowwrestler 6y ago
Dropbox’s killer app is: simply working. I have access to and use both Google Drive and O365 One Drive at work and it is shocking how often I have problems with them. To be clear, my expected rate of problems for this functionality is “never.” The only service I have that experience with is Dropbox. With GDrive and One Drive I have seen folders lose sync, files get stuck syncing, and inexplicable conflicts. In addition, sharing outside my org is way easier and more reliable with Dropbox. I agree that copying files around seems like it should be trivial. Somehow it’s not, though. I don’t have an explanation, just observations from trying to get real work done on a Mac.
- donnythecroc 6y ago
  This. From day one I still never had an issue with Dropbox. Icloud and one drive - constant problems.

chaostheory 6y ago

Everyone said it was a dead startup based on a feature. They were wrong.

908B64B197 6y ago

Nerds used to large corporate networks/university ones pretty much all had access to shared drives that "just worked" in the OS file browser. The magic of DropBox was that non-technical users could just share that word document, have it everywhere and not have to deal with a weird terminal. I wished Drobox built a (physicals, why not) wall at their HQ with the names of everyone who was able to miraculously recover their masters/phd thesis after hardware failure because they saved it in their Dropbox folder.

jokethrowaway 6y ago

TBH I never understood the appeal of dropbox, drive, mega, etc Is it the UI? Is it keeping your data safe? Is it the sync? I never used their native applications because I hate constant syncing for no reason and running proprietary apps (especially if they're always on), but I use some of their free tiers to store stuff. If I had to pay I'd just buy some space on some server at the cheapest price per gb there is.