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So when is Dropbox actually going to be profitable? If you have 45 million users and you can't be self-sufficient then maybe the business model doesn't work.
Also, if there is any business that benefits from economies of scale, it's this one. Storage (and it's associated cost) scales very well as your user base skyrockets.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now, in hindsight, when it's getting billions of dollar valuations, yeah it looks sexy. But when it was starting out? Google, Microsoft, Apple were going to eat its lunch any day now . You have to download a desktop client? Dude, the future's all about web apps. All the real money is in social recommendations for the colour of your next toilet roll.
> Google, Microsoft, Apple were going to eat its lunch any day now. Sure, there was potential serious competition, but not yet. It was still a big opportunity just waiting for someone to come and do it right. It's the kind of service that everyone has a use for and many will pay for. Hook 'em with a free 2GB, and sell extra storage - a very solid business model.
Of course, no one wanted to comment on how lucky I was to spend time reading software manuals, or Cisco Router manuals, or sitting in my house testing and comparing new technologies, but that’s a topic for another blog post.
The point of all this is that it doesn’t matter how many times you fail.It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right.No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because…
All that matters in business is that you get it right once.
Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.
http://blogmaverick.com/2005/05/30/success-and-motivation-yo...
So when is Dropbox actually going to be profitable? If you have 45 million users and you can't be self-sufficient then maybe the business model doesn't work.
> The 50-million-user figure is up threefold from a year ago, and it has solved the “freemium” riddle, with revenue on track to hit $240 million in 2011 despite the fact that 96% of those users pay nothing. With only 70 staffers, mostly engineers, Dropbox grosses nearly three times more per employee than even the darling of business models, Google. Houston claims it’s already profitable but won’t reveal margins.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriabarret/2011/10/18/dropbo...
Is iCloud going to be a threat for dropbox?
No, because there are even today a lot more non-apple users than there are apple users and dropbox is platform agnostic. It may cause them some lost sales but nothing threatening.
Of course, now the question is: what are they going to do with this $250M? The only new feature that has really come out of Dropbox recently is the API, and even that has been in development for some time.
I'm guessing the founders took a decent chunk off the table...
Of course, now the question is: what are they going to do with this $250M? The only new feature that has really come out of Dropbox recently is the API, and even that has been in development for some time.
So when is Dropbox actually going to be profitable? If you have 45 million users and you can't be self-sufficient then maybe the business model doesn't work.
I'm guessing the founders took a decent chunk off the table...
Yes, that seems to be pretty much the norm these days. But at valuation of $4B (as reported by TC), $250 million is just 6.25% dilutions so founders (and other early investors) did get a pretty good deal.
Of course, now the question is: what are they going to do with this $250M? The only new feature that has really come out of Dropbox recently is the API, and even that has been in development for some time.
A new datacenter.