> However, those free users were poised to recommend Dropbox when their companies were looking for a file storage and sharing solution.
You can take the Dropbox example further though. The free plan was absolutely necessary for Dropbox. If you're in the file sharing business, it's only going to work if all users are using Dropbox.
I don’t think I’ve ever sent a Dropbox link and have received few enough to count on both hands. Dropbox for me always seemed like a polished file sync solution with associated/inadvertent offsite backup that later bolted on a not-quite-polished file share function.
You can take the Dropbox example further though. The free plan was absolutely necessary for Dropbox. If you're in the file sharing business, it's only going to work if all users are using Dropbox.