

Is Dropbox Really The World's 5th Most Valuable Startup? - _tarak_
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dropbox_value.php

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joshu
Another one. No?

What's the difference between a "startup" and a "business"?

I'm going to go with Steve Blank's answer: A startup is in search of a
business model. A business has found it.

Pretty sure Dropbox has found theirs already.

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maximusprime
Wouldn't you say it's a short term business though?

People expect email to be free, and have tons of storage. Likewise they will
now expect services like dropbox to be free and offer a ton of storage.

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smikhanov
Don't think so. The value of service for the Dropbox user grows over time (as
the number of stored files and their revisions grow). Having a competitor that
will simply be free is not enough for those users to start considering
switching. So I think Dropbox is fine in the long run.

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alexro
Who's using Dropbox as a long-term backup strategy? Also, it's just a folder
on your machine, switching to a competitor is pointing exactly one folder to
the new storage, isn't it?

And it should be possible to use two or more services an the same time,
building new revision history while still using Dropbox. Then switching over
altogether. Sounds rather simple to me.

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edanm
"Who's using Dropbox as a long-term backup strategy".

I am, and I'm guessing plenty of others are too.

Although I don't really use the revisions feature, so technically you're
correct, I'd have no problem switching to a competitor. But it'll be _really_
hard to compete with Dropbox, and for something so important to me, price
isn't the most important issue.

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maximusprime
I don't see why it would be so hard to compete.

Isn't dropbox a pretty simple thing? It's just storing your stuff, with some
sync things etc.

Seems like the barrier to entry is "Stores my files and doesn't lose them"?

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blankenship
Michael Wolfe answered this perfectly on Quora:

 _Well, let's take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the
ideal solution for it would do:

There would be a folder. You'd put your stuff in it. It would sync.

They built that.

Why didn't anyone else build that? I have no idea._

[http://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-
tha...](http://www.quora.com/Dropbox/Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-than-other-
programs-with-similar-functionality/answer/Michael-Wolfe)

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edanm
Dropbox, to me, is a shining example of a startup which _invented a whole new
field_ , one that I can't live without. Much like Facebook invented a whole
new method of social interaction,

Had you asked me 3 years ago whether I'd need Dropbox, and described it as
"file sharing easily", I'd have said "meh". But Dropbox is more than that.
It's a backup solution + file sharing among devices, rolled into one, and
executed to perfection. It literally changed my computing life. Dropbox is one
service I simply could _not_ live without anymore.

So in terms of actual value to me, personally, I'd easily rank Dropbox in the
top 5 (along with Facebook).

* Note: I agree with joshu here, Dropbox is really not a "startup" per Steve Blank's definition. Also, since when is Wikipedia a startup?

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jkahn
The fifth most valuable? _Only_ the fifth?

We use Dropbox for teams for our company data. We forked out for it because it
_is_ that good. Admittedly we're small - only five people thus far - but
growing. A few years ago we couldn't do this reliable without a file server.
Dropbox has revolutionised file sharing from the low end, and will continue to
hit up into the business market with their current trajectory.

Yes, we have used alternatives, but none are as straightforward and fuss-free
as Dropbox. I think they're the _most_ valuable startup out there at the
moment.

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scrrr
Agreed, however I'd say the technology barrier to compete is not that high and
it might soon be common to share files conveniently. With a choice of many
services that offer the same. That would probably lower the value of Dropbox
significantly.

Or is there reason to believe there will be no equally useful competition
products?

~~~
jkahn
I disagree that the barrier to compete is not very high.

There have been "alternatives" for years - see FolderShare/SkyDrive. There are
plenty of alternatives now, but the reality is that their implementation
sucks. We tried using JungleDisk but it is just too inefficient. Others were
just too fiddly.

Dropbox is so easy that my wife and I use it to share files between computers
at _home_ rather than do local file shares. Seriously. And it was her idea.

Dropbox is so far ahead of the competition it is crazy. They just need to keep
that advantage.

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Gustomaximus
I think they are too vulnerable a business to be so valuable.

I recently swapped to another similar solution recently because they gave a
few more gb free storage. And the fact these services are so easy to set up
now means it is also so easy to swap for a small reason. Plus the coming of
Google Drive; their integration / pricing / distribution will be hard to
compete with as syncing becomes more popular with the masses.

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Poyeyo
I would add a parallel between Youtube and Dropbox.

Then compare the coming gDrive with Google Video and remind us that Google
Video was unable to disrupt Youtube userbase.

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ja27
Dropbox is used by about half my coworkers. Among friends that I work on
projects with, it's used by more like 90% of them. That's on par with Skype
and we saw their valuation.

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markokocic
If Facebook, Zinga, Groupon and Wikipedia are startups (just looking at the
first couple), could someone describe to me why Microsoft, Apple and Google
are not startups?

