How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions • Hacker News Board

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#91

Post by mrmanner » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:08 AM UTC

tjoff wrote: post #77

xyzzyz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong about it? Would you prefer to have 2 GB shared quota, or separate quota of 1 GB each? With shared quota you have more flexibility as to what service you prefer to use more.

Email is a critical service. Loosing emails because a misclick or uploaded a too big of file is not acceptable UX.

I once was over the quota for over two months in a row, and still had no problems sending and receiving email. So I think Google does understand that email is critical service :)

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#92

Post by mrmanner » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:10 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #83

ta1234567890 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't speak for the parent comment. However I can relate. Today I installed Dropbox for my grandfather and their default entry-level free account comes with 2GB, but as soon as you create your account and install the software, they offer to give you 25GB of free space if you add 1 file to your account and you install Dropbox on your mobile. Not sure if that helps them artificially boost their numbers (by claiming mor…

I found it an interesting approach to an incentivised tutorial of sorts it's very easy to install Dropbox on your desktop and just forget that it's there. By offering you free storage space by introducing you to features, such as their mobile app, sharing, etc, they're making you curious and interested in what else they have to offer you. You could call it growth hacking I guess. I think it's an interesting alternati…

> or Clippy

They should have a Droppy though

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#93

Post by tomhoward » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:33 AM UTC

ebikelaw wrote: post #21

I noticed the word "profit" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Will Dropbox ever make money?

This is the wrong question to ask about a company that still has growth potential.

If there is still potential for growth, it is irrational to declare profits; by doing so you're foregoing the opportunity for bigger revenues (and gross profits) in the future and leaving the way open for a hungrier competitor.

It's a valid question to ask whether they could be profitable if they ceased all investment in growth, and I would encourage you to explore that question. They're a listed company so their financials are public.

FWIW their share price is above the IPO price, so the markets seem comfortable.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#94

Post by tomhoward » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:35 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #46

ebikelaw wrote: post #21

I noticed the word "profit" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Will Dropbox ever make money?

Exactly. It kills me that the definition of a successful company is rarely - being able to deliver a product profitably.

This is the kind of dismissal people make when there's nothing left of substance to criticize about a company. But it's an empty dismissal - see my comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17548438

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#95

Post by tjoff » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:39 AM UTC

colde wrote: post #90

tjoff wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is a critical service. Loosing emails because a misclick or uploaded a too big of file is not acceptable UX.

In that case, aren't you arguing that quotas shouldn't be placed on email at all? It's not like they instantly block receipt of mail if you go over the quota, you have time to fix it, which is much better than many mail services.

Not really, a gigabyte goes a long way for email and if you get a warning with 200 MB left or something you have lots of time to act on it.

In contrast to a video recorded even by phones today a gigabyte is consumed in no time. Accidentally (without realizing how big it is or how much quota you have left) uploading a short clip is not something you put a lot of thought into.

It's not like they instantly block receipt of mail [...]

Well true, but it sucks having to rely on googles good will for that, you don't know the hard limits and they can change at any time without notice. It is still unacceptable UX.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#96

Post by cbcoutinho » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 9:47 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #45

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mainly stayed because I don't want to support the mega-corporations when there's a smaller ($12bn counts as "smaller" these days...) company doing a fine job. That aside, I appreciate that they've mostly stayed focused on the core task of syncing files between computers, that there's no bias in terms of devices or OSes, and that their client software tends to work just a little bit better than the competition.

I can’t see myself paying $10/month for Dropbox when I can get Office365 for the same price with 1tb apiece for up to five users, plus office for 5 computers, and 5 iPads.

I can't use onedrive due it's lack of a Linux client. There are thirdparty ones available, but upstream API changes have caused data corruptions so I don't trust it as my main driver anymore.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#97

Post by vanderZwan » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 10:17 AM UTC

My current Dropbox set-up: three hard drives, two of which are SSDs, each of which have a different OS (Windows and Linux respectively) and one really big HDD with NTFS to share data between the two of them. Which also is the Dropbox folder. In practice I only reboot to Windows to defragment the NTFS drive drive, but sometimes it's useful for develpoment.

Makes it quite easy to migrate to a new computer, or do a fresh install if I want to clean up the OS.

The only hassle is that Dropbox doesn't let you link an already existing Dropbox folder in Linux. Which is fixed by renaming the folder, "creating" a new one, moving all hidden files to the renamed folder and renaming it back.

I'm considering moving to another service, but it's just so convenient and the price is OK.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#98

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 11:10 AM UTC

tomhoward wrote: post #94

scarface74 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It kills me that the definition of a successful company is rarely - being able to deliver a product profitably.

This is the kind of dismissal people make when there's nothing left of substance to criticize about a company. But it's an empty dismissal - see my comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17548438

Would you also say the same about Uber? Neither company has proven that there is a demand for their product once they set a price where they can make a profit.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#99

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 11:29 AM UTC

Kurtz79 wrote: post #84

_bxg1 wrote: post #6

When Google Drive and iCloud and One Drive all cropped up, copying the same service with the addition of deeper integration into different devices and software, I was worried Dropbox would be unable to compete. But they've hung in there, and I remain a happy customer.

It's a texbook case of: - It's good enough - It just works It solves the problem of sharing files across different devices and does it with no fuss. I have tried alternatives such as Google Drive and Onedrive and changing terms (looking at you Microsoft), incompatibilities, clunky interfaces always made me drop them.

They wouldn’t grow if they were just good enough, but they happen to be better at what they do and that’s why I use it. Google drive and google anything seems to eat all memory you throw at it, and it could be shut down or changed anytime. iCloud is nice, but doesn’t have sharing options otherwise I would have migrated it all to iCloud.

Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions

#100

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 11:40 AM UTC

101km wrote: post #85

scarface74 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It kills me that the definition of a successful company is rarely - being able to deliver a product profitably.

They provided a spreadsheet on their investor relations page: https://dropbox.gcs-web.com/static-files/105a910a-1026-4056-... Losses last three years are: ~300m, ~200m, ~100m. They are going to be profitable by 2020 and their margin is growing, so I don't get this negativity.

They can predict a lot of things. But in the B2B market, they are competing with much larger companies that can offer the same amount of storage plus a lot more - Google and Microsoft.

In the consumer market, they are competing with Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Would you really want to compete against the three most valuable companies in the US where as Steve Jobs said “you’re not a product you’re a feature”?