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Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

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Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#71

Post by wildmXranat »

jpdoctor wrote: post #70
mattmaroon wrote: post #54

When I was in YC (same batch as Dropbox) this was a constant question. "What happens to Dropbox if Gdrive launches?" I don't actually remember what Drew and Arash thought, but a lot of people speculated on it. It was probably a real threat to them 4.5 years ago. I can't imagine it is now. Dropbox has a large, happy fanbase that's going to keep using it and keep spreading. They're going to keep growing. They've got a…

> If I were Dropbox I'd simply view this as market validation And if I were Dropbox, I'd worry like hell. Google isn't depending on making GDrive profitable from fees, so they can literally give it away.

Indeed. Competition on this market space is almost guaranteed to be a race to the bottom. Dropbox will have to respond by concentrating on features to set itself apart.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#72

Post by brlewis »

icebraining wrote: post #68
brlewis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docs and gmail let you slowly fill available space while being exposed to Google Ads. A Dropbox clone would let you fill available space quickly without ads.

Gmail has POP3, IMAP and SMTP for free without ads.

Yes, and GMail for mobile is ad-free. On average, though, I would expect more storage+bandwidth costs per ad impression from a GDrive user than from a GMail user, if GDrive turns out to be similar to Dropbox.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#73

Post by rgraham »

wildmXranat wrote: post #71
jpdoctor wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I were Dropbox I'd simply view this as market validation And if I were Dropbox, I'd worry like hell. Google isn't depending on making GDrive profitable from fees, so they can literally give it away.

Indeed. Competition on this market space is almost guaranteed to be a race to the bottom. Dropbox will have to respond by concentrating on features to set itself apart.

They should concentrate on making users really happy. Features may or may not figure in there.

It would be pretty tough to compete with an over 10,000 engineer company with incredible building blocks on features.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#74

Post by rudiger »

sho_hn wrote: post #41
brlewis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's (Explorer, Finder, Nautilus) in (Windows, Mac, Linux)

That's (Explorer, Finder, Dolphin, Nautilus) in (Windows, OS X, KDE, Gnome). Or you could go with (Seafood) for (Linux) ;).

Seafood? Who eats dolphin or nautilus?

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#75

Post by markokocic »

jpdoctor wrote: post #70
mattmaroon wrote: post #54

When I was in YC (same batch as Dropbox) this was a constant question. "What happens to Dropbox if Gdrive launches?" I don't actually remember what Drew and Arash thought, but a lot of people speculated on it. It was probably a real threat to them 4.5 years ago. I can't imagine it is now. Dropbox has a large, happy fanbase that's going to keep using it and keep spreading. They're going to keep growing. They've got a…

> If I were Dropbox I'd simply view this as market validation And if I were Dropbox, I'd worry like hell. Google isn't depending on making GDrive profitable from fees, so they can literally give it away.

That's how Microsoft won the browser wars few years ago.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#76

Post by patio11 »

jpdoctor wrote: post #70
mattmaroon wrote: post #54

When I was in YC (same batch as Dropbox) this was a constant question. "What happens to Dropbox if Gdrive launches?" I don't actually remember what Drew and Arash thought, but a lot of people speculated on it. It was probably a real threat to them 4.5 years ago. I can't imagine it is now. Dropbox has a large, happy fanbase that's going to keep using it and keep spreading. They're going to keep growing. They've got a…

> If I were Dropbox I'd simply view this as market validation And if I were Dropbox, I'd worry like hell. Google isn't depending on making GDrive profitable from fees, so they can literally give it away.

You'd be surprised how difficult "giving it away" can be, even for Google. Google succeeded big on giving away email, search, and androids. Do I need to list up all the acquisitions and products that even with a mortal lock on navigation on the Internet Google couldn't convince people was worth at least $0?

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#77

Post by tomelders »

brown9-2 wrote: post #69
tomelders wrote: post #30

It's in areas like this that Google sometimes oversteps the mark and veers dangerously close to "being evil" territory... in MY opinion. As I see it: Dropbox innovated, and they innovated well. It's inevitable that competition would arise, but competition on the scale Google can offer could well mean total annihilation for Dropbox, if annihilation is what Google pursues. Google doesn't "need" to enter this market. An…

This argument seems silly. Early innovation does not mean an end to competition, or an eternal lock on a product type. Google's search engine would have never come into existence if their founders followed this line of thinking.

Read carefully. I'm not saying Dropbox should have a monopoly, but that the competition should be more evenly matched.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#78

Post by joebadmo »

mattmaroon wrote: post #54

When I was in YC (same batch as Dropbox) this was a constant question. "What happens to Dropbox if Gdrive launches?" I don't actually remember what Drew and Arash thought, but a lot of people speculated on it. It was probably a real threat to them 4.5 years ago. I can't imagine it is now. Dropbox has a large, happy fanbase that's going to keep using it and keep spreading. They're going to keep growing. They've got a…

FWIW, one of the reasons I like having a non Google service to hold some important files is in case I hit the Google black swan and get locked out of my gmail account. (I also backup my email regularly.) While integration would probably be convenient, I need to be able to keep working if I do get locked out.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#79

Post by tomelders »

shahidhussain wrote: post #47
tomelders wrote: post #30

It's in areas like this that Google sometimes oversteps the mark and veers dangerously close to "being evil" territory... in MY opinion. As I see it: Dropbox innovated, and they innovated well. It's inevitable that competition would arise, but competition on the scale Google can offer could well mean total annihilation for Dropbox, if annihilation is what Google pursues. Google doesn't "need" to enter this market. An…

Any company - big or small - is going to enter markets where they think they can make an impact. I don't think it's about being nice to smaller companies (and BTW, Dropbox isn't that small any more). It's about what's the best fit for users, and having the market decide the winner. If Google make a product that can't compete with Dropbox's ease of use, they'll flounder, as have many Google products in the past (Buzz,…

It wasn't good for users when Microsoft put Netscape out of business, and It wont be good for users if Google puts Dropbox out of business.

Re: Google Drive: Is the Dropbox Party Over?

#80

Post by esutton »

marklabedz wrote: post #15

If this means I can combine the seamless syncing and "available anywhere with an internet connection" of Dropbox, with the convenience of being able to make easy edits in Google Docs if I don't have access to MS Word, I'm all for it.

google docs already does this with cloud connect
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