Comments on: Why Do Some Online Services Thrive?

By: Kevin Garber

Kevin Garber — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:05:41 +0000

Thoughts from Sydney Australia

1- Find a problem that causes real pain (be careful of just creating something "cool")
2- Execute well on the solution.
3- Create a branding with a look and feel that talks to your target market.
4- Try stay away from "advertising" business models unless you have a long runway via solid VC funding.
5-Create as many avenues for feedback.
6-Be patient but push forward hard., true overnight successes are few.

By: Ben Mc

Ben Mc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:36:48 +0000

I believe that recent reports state that their "active" user count is less than 1 million of the 2 million subscribers. That's an over 50% bounce rate, so you can't really say that "most" tend to sign-up and stay, because actually, "most" sign-up and leave.

Lastly, it's easy to say KISS, but in "reality", particularly niche industries, features are still king and some of the MOST successful apps actually have enormous amounts of features. ONLY the handful of lottery winning apps with minimal features are successful.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:40:13 +0000

I'd wager that a major trajectory for growth has been the sharing features, ie. just by using it you end up advertising it….If you start using it at work you want everyone else to use it too because then you can easily share files from anywhere. The fact that it is utterly awesome also makes it easy for users to evangelize.

By: cojadate

cojadate — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:40:42 +0000

About a year ago I went on a systematic search for the best online file storage services. I tried all the most recommended ones and Dropbox came up head and shoulders above the rest, for the following reasons:
1. It's free account is extremely generous – 2GB and no individual file size cap.
2. The automatic-syncing with folders on my computer makes sharing and backing-up extremely convenient.

So from my perspective Dropbox has grown so much because it offers a much better service than its competitors.

Interesting to hear about the 'secret sauce'; I didn't know that.

By: David Smit

David Smit — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:33:33 +0000

Dropbox also has a bit of secret sauce. They have some technology that can pick up which bits changed in a file and only sync those (which makes their service way faster than others)

By: Jake Seliger

Jake Seliger — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:56:15 +0000

Points 2, 3, and 4 are basically the same, and can be summarized as: it's insanely easy to use. I set up Dropbox in about 20 seconds, and it did exactly what it said it would. Compared to every other synchronization tool I've ever used, Dropbox wins not by meters, but by miles.

By: Breck Yunits

Breck Yunits — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:34:44 +0000

Dropbox reminds me of Google. They have focused relentlessly on a very important problem that most people overlooked(file storage). They seem to be focused on building the world's perfect file storage, just as Google aims to build the world's perfect search engine. I am amazed by how well Dropbox works. It is a daunting technical challenge to integrate with multiple OS' seamlessly and quickly. But they pulled it off with flying colors.

By: nertzy

nertzy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:20:04 +0000

I think that in this case a great name also contributes.

It's very easy to explain what you could do with a DropBox, whereas who knows what something like Wuala or Zecter does. (Did a quick Google search to look for DropBox competitors and those names came up.)

By: toby

toby — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:47:57 +0000

they also offer more free space for referrals. This leads to viral advertising by users. I have already upped my account to 3gb by recommending it to friends.

By: jtrigsby

jtrigsby — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:23:35 +0000

I think we'll see more and more of this. As users become more comfortable with the cloud, the last big barrier will be removed… trust.

The technology for things like DropBox (HUGE fan BTW) have been around for a while and now the ubiquity of broadband makes it reasonable to sync even large files through the cloud. Google Voice provides phone service… Gmail, Yahoo and others provide email… Google Apps, Zoho, and soon Microsoft will deliver office tools to the cloud… games have been there for a while. What's left? The user.

And I agree, drop dead easy to join is an absolute requirement. Make it "Apple Simple" as they say… just without the Apple cost.

Awesome topic, thanks for the post!

@jtrigsby