DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users.

Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by mrshoe on Thursday September 24, 2009 @07:46PM (#842517)

You know what's really cool about this? Microsoft and Apple have both taken stabs at this problem multiple times. The companies that make the operating systems on about 99% of PCs have both tried this. They've had some success at it, but it's never been a killer app or a feature that people rave about.

Knowing that, dhouston still created DropBox. He did a fantastic job. He knocked it out of the park. Now 2 million people have used the thing and he's well on his way to building a very successful business with it.

Don't let the big guys scare you.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by Elepsis on Thursday September 24, 2009 @08:07PM (#842552)

I suspect people underestimate how successful Microsoft and Apple have been with their competitive services.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by huhtenberg on Thursday September 24, 2009 @08:17PM (#842571)

Care to elaborate ?

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by commiebob on Thursday September 24, 2009 @10:43PM (#842789)

I think what he's getting at is that if Microsoft has a similar product and they gained 2 million users, it would not be seen as impressive, because that is still far less than 1% of all Windows users.

So, while Microsoft may have a competing product with many millions of users, at their scale it doesn't get the same recognition as a startup gaining 2 million users.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by s3graham on Thursday September 24, 2009 @08:22PM (#842581)

Anecdotally, I see FolderShare quite widely used. I have no idea how number of users compares to DropBox though.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by zemoo on Thursday September 24, 2009 @10:07PM (#842736)

FolderShare was acquired. I don't know if Microsoft has done a terrible lot with the program since the acquisition to be able to claim the success as its own.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by sriramk on Thursday September 24, 2009 @10:28PM (#842762)

Actually, the closest Microsoft equivalent is Live Mesh.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by stumm on Friday September 25, 2009 @12:32AM (#842918)

Foldershare is now known as windows live sync.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by lucifer on Thursday September 24, 2009 @08:49PM (#842614)

(Just) Curios why you point out the technical angle of their achievement but don't mention aferdowsi. Doesn't he deserve any credit as the CTO?

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by mrshoe on Thursday September 24, 2009 @09:01PM (#842634)

I wasn't attempting to dole out credit. I was highlighting the fact that dhouston was brave enough to start DropBox in the face of circumstances that would probably have deterred many of us.

The whole team deserves a ton of credit for what they've accomplished.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by dhouston on Thursday September 24, 2009 @09:29PM (#842676)

my cofounder arash and team definitely deserve more credit than i do.

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Re:DropBox grows like weed. Reaches 2 million users. by jpendry on Friday September 25, 2009 @11:11AM (#843585)

and _that_ is why you are so good

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