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My problem with Dropbox's prospects to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, in a nutshell: I use Dropbox on multiple Macs and across multiple iOS devices,

My problem with Dropbox's prospects to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, in a nutshell: I use Dropbox on multiple Macs and across multiple iOS devices, for a not-insignificant variety of use cases. I have never paid Dropbox a dollar.

azakai 15y ago
> My problem with Dropbox's prospects to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, in a nutshell: > I use Dropbox on multiple Macs and across multiple iOS devices, for a not-insignificant variety of use cases. I have never paid Dropbox a dollar. Have you ever paid Google a dollar?
- adgar 15y ago
  > Have you ever paid Google a dollar? Are you suggesting that Dropbox is going to hit multi-billions through advertising? To successfully complete your analogy, you need to fill in the gap between "hosting files for free for most of their customers" and multiple billions of dollars.
  - azakai 15y ago
    I am not suggesting exactly that, no. But it is possible to make large amounts of money without being paid by the people using your service, if there is a ridiculously large amount of those people. Google is the best example, that part is true. To be more concrete, there are at least two possible ways for something like Dropbox to make money without users paying Dropbox directly: * Data mine the files hosted for users. Even anonymized data like this can be very valuable for third parties. Edit: or for other separate services inside your own company. * Ads that become an integral part of the Dropbox service, preferably targeted using data mining from the previous point. Are these good ideas? I don't know.
swombat 15y ago
I do the same. I have bought one 50GB account for me, one for my partner, and one of my companies have bought a Team account. The plural of anecdote is not data. How many people did you refer to get the free storage you needed? How long do you think it will be before you need more and pony up?
- feralchimp 15y ago
  Your point is well taken, and they are clearly generating a non-trivial amount of revenue. But my point wasn't "they're losing money and making it up on volume"; more that true juggernauts like Apple and Google have business models that derive at least some additional incremental revenue from every user they acquire. Google obviously plays a longer game to receive that revenue through advertising than Apple does selling hardware, but the revenue does eventually arrive.

azakai 15y ago

> My problem with Dropbox's prospects to become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, in a nutshell: > I use Dropbox on multiple Macs and across multiple iOS devices, for a not-insignificant variety of use cases. I have never paid Dropbox a dollar. Have you ever paid Google a dollar?

adgar 15y ago
> Have you ever paid Google a dollar? Are you suggesting that Dropbox is going to hit multi-billions through advertising? To successfully complete your analogy, you need to fill in the gap between "hosting files for free for most of their customers" and multiple billions of dollars.
- azakai 15y ago
  I am not suggesting exactly that, no. But it is possible to make large amounts of money without being paid by the people using your service, if there is a ridiculously large amount of those people. Google is the best example, that part is true. To be more concrete, there are at least two possible ways for something like Dropbox to make money without users paying Dropbox directly: * Data mine the files hosted for users. Even anonymized data like this can be very valuable for third parties. Edit: or for other separate services inside your own company. * Ads that become an integral part of the Dropbox service, preferably targeted using data mining from the previous point. Are these good ideas? I don't know.

swombat 15y ago

I do the same. I have bought one 50GB account for me, one for my partner, and one of my companies have bought a Team account. The plural of anecdote is not data. How many people did you refer to get the free storage you needed? How long do you think it will be before you need more and pony up?

feralchimp 15y ago
Your point is well taken, and they are clearly generating a non-trivial amount of revenue. But my point wasn't "they're losing money and making it up on volume"; more that true juggernauts like Apple and Google have business models that derive at least some additional incremental revenue from every user they acquire. Google obviously plays a longer game to receive that revenue through advertising than Apple does selling hardware, but the revenue does eventually arrive.