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Where is Dropbox now? Last I checked their stock had slid 50% since IPO and they hadn't added major functionality to any of their clients. Most people I know sw

Where is Dropbox now? Last I checked their stock had slid 50% since IPO and they hadn't added major functionality to any of their clients. Most people I know switched to Google Drive, iCloud or selfhosted. Is there any reason, 10 years after release, why I should be using Dropbox instead of my own network attached storage? Or does their product really just boil down to "storage as-a-service, as a service"?

ndneighbor 4y ago
I think your comment does prove that on a long enough time horizon cynicism is the correct disposition to have when it comes to weighing new things. It's on the founder/team to constantly prove that not to be the case. In the case of Dropbox, I would say HN was directionally correct that the software would be commoditized, but I would say that the avg. commenter then would not be able to predict the IPO.
nscalf 4y ago
Dropbox is an $8.5b publicly traded company, so it’s in a much better place than an idea that got shot down on the internet and never went anywhere.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Fair enough. One has to wonder how much of their market share was cannibalized by the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft though. Dropbox certainly didn't try to distinguish themselves from the pack, and now they're barely on the map. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of middle-schoolers today have never even heard of it.
  - nscalf 4y ago
    Yeah, I completely agree with you. It seems like the best path for them would have been something like what slack did. There was a time when Dropbox was a widely used product, that would have been a great time to get acquired and bundled.
rejectfinite 4y ago
They invented the market that Google Drive and Onedrive took over. There is little need to pay separate for Dropbox now that it is in Google Suite/Workspace and Microsoft Office 365. But for a few years they were the only ones.
gardenhedge 4y ago
I pay for dropbox. You recommend that I should use my own network attached storage? I don't even know what that is or how it works.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Ok? You do know about iCloud and Google Drive though, and both of those are cheaper-per-gigabyte than Dropbox. If you're still paying for Dropbox in 2023, that's a you-problem.
  - gardenhedge 4y ago
    I don't understand the problem at all.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
    Maybe /u/gardenhedge prioritizes other features above cost.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      Considering how few features Dropbox hosts, I find that incredibly hard to believe.
      - dagw 4y ago
        I use Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. Dropbox has faster and more stable sync and better Linux support. For many that is enough to pay for.
  - Swenrekcah 4y ago
    I pay for email and search and I don’t see the problem.
dilyevsky 4y ago
They’ve been commoditized by box, drive, icloud and everyone under the sun like everyone here predicted. Still a multi-billion company tho so I guess it’s not a bad outcome. For me the lesson here is even if your idea is obvious, if you have first mover advantage and execute well you can still succeed
HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
Sure. I built a webapp that uses Dropbox as a global, read-only storage that is accessed on average just once a day per app instance. At midnight, or at startup, each site synchronizes its local file list with a common dropbox site. Yes, there are many other ways this could have been done, but it was built to be administered by non-technical people who at least understood how to upload files to Dropbox and they have access to all of Dropbox's file management tools. A massive chunk of functionality that we didn't have to build out!
wruza 4y ago
they hadn't added major functionality to any of their clients Stagnating! Seriously, which major functionality you’d want to add to your, idk, snow brush, duct tape, thermometer? Or does their product really just boil down to "storage as-a-service, as a service"? I’m not using cloud storage/sync, but if I did, that would be an exact formula for choosing a product. I mean I’d want to put files in a dir (v-drive?) and that’s it. And when the time comes, Dropbox will be first, because it’s basically synonymous to it, unless price-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Maybe features you talked about are sharing, social-something, smartphone integration, etc. Genuinely not sure.

ndneighbor 4y ago

I think your comment does prove that on a long enough time horizon cynicism is the correct disposition to have when it comes to weighing new things. It's on the founder/team to constantly prove that not to be the case. In the case of Dropbox, I would say HN was directionally correct that the software would be commoditized, but I would say that the avg. commenter then would not be able to predict the IPO.

nscalf 4y ago

Dropbox is an $8.5b publicly traded company, so it’s in a much better place than an idea that got shot down on the internet and never went anywhere.

smoldesu 4y ago
Fair enough. One has to wonder how much of their market share was cannibalized by the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft though. Dropbox certainly didn't try to distinguish themselves from the pack, and now they're barely on the map. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of middle-schoolers today have never even heard of it.
- nscalf 4y ago
  Yeah, I completely agree with you. It seems like the best path for them would have been something like what slack did. There was a time when Dropbox was a widely used product, that would have been a great time to get acquired and bundled.

rejectfinite 4y ago

They invented the market that Google Drive and Onedrive took over. There is little need to pay separate for Dropbox now that it is in Google Suite/Workspace and Microsoft Office 365. But for a few years they were the only ones.

gardenhedge 4y ago

I pay for dropbox. You recommend that I should use my own network attached storage? I don't even know what that is or how it works.

smoldesu 4y ago
Ok? You do know about iCloud and Google Drive though, and both of those are cheaper-per-gigabyte than Dropbox. If you're still paying for Dropbox in 2023, that's a you-problem.
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  I don't understand the problem at all.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  Maybe /u/gardenhedge prioritizes other features above cost.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    Considering how few features Dropbox hosts, I find that incredibly hard to believe.
    - dagw 4y ago
      I use Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. Dropbox has faster and more stable sync and better Linux support. For many that is enough to pay for.
- Swenrekcah 4y ago
  I pay for email and search and I don’t see the problem.

dilyevsky 4y ago

They’ve been commoditized by box, drive, icloud and everyone under the sun like everyone here predicted. Still a multi-billion company tho so I guess it’s not a bad outcome. For me the lesson here is even if your idea is obvious, if you have first mover advantage and execute well you can still succeed

HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago

Sure. I built a webapp that uses Dropbox as a global, read-only storage that is accessed on average just once a day per app instance. At midnight, or at startup, each site synchronizes its local file list with a common dropbox site. Yes, there are many other ways this could have been done, but it was built to be administered by non-technical people who at least understood how to upload files to Dropbox and they have access to all of Dropbox's file management tools. A massive chunk of functionality that we didn't have to build out!

wruza 4y ago

they hadn't added major functionality to any of their clients Stagnating! Seriously, which major functionality you’d want to add to your, idk, snow brush, duct tape, thermometer? Or does their product really just boil down to "storage as-a-service, as a service"? I’m not using cloud storage/sync, but if I did, that would be an exact formula for choosing a product. I mean I’d want to put files in a dir (v-drive?) and that’s it. And when the time comes, Dropbox will be first, because it’s basically synonymous to it, unless price-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Maybe features you talked about are sharing, social-something, smartphone integration, etc. Genuinely not sure.