This presentation explores the innovations which have led to the rapid growth of Dropbox and the various factors which make it a sustainable service.

1. Group 6
Section S2
Dropbox
Group 6, Section S2

2. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

3. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

4. What is Dropbox?
 Dropbox, Inc. founded in 2007 by MIT
grads: Drew Houston & Arash Ferdowsi
 App was released in 2008
 Free file hosting service that offers cloud
storage, file synchronization, and client
software
 Availabel on: Windows, Mac, Linux,
Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and web
browsers

5. Features!
Technical innovations which
created value for users

6. Work Anywhere
 All files saved to
Dropbox are
synched to all
devices where the
app is installed
 Lets you get things
done no matter
where you‟re
working from

7. Simplified Sharing
 Invite people to
any folder in your
Dropbox – folder
synced straight to
their computer
 OR Send people
links to specific files

8. Data Backup and Safety
 Data is on cloud –
independent of
personal device
 Undo mistakes &
Undelete files
 In case a platform
is unavailable, use
the website

9. Efficient and convenient
 No need to carry
USBs or to email
yourself your
essential files
 Dropbox reduces
bandwidth usage
by only syncing the
„delta‟ of the
changed file

10. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

11. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

12. Explosive Growth
The factors that led to
Dropbox‟s phenomenal growth

13. A look at the stats…
 Revenue hit about $240 million in 2011
 1 billion files are saved to Dropbox every
48 hours
 Over 100 million users (August 2012)
 Over 100 employees
 Installed on 250 million devices
 Valued at over a billion dollars even by
the most conservative estimates

14. Dropbox’s “Growth Hacks”
 Implemented growth hacks to increase its
user-base
 What‟s a growth hack?
 NO traditional advertising to “buy” each
new customer
 Acquire customers in ways that scale
 Cost of acquiring each customer ~ $0
 Pay only for the execution of the growth
hack

15. Signup Driven Homepage
Demo Video
Sign up / Sign in
Simple & Clean Layout
Download Link
Supported Platforms

16. Easy Sign up Process
 Only a few simple
steps
 Sign up on the
desktop – no
browser required
 Getting started file
is put in the
Dropbox folder
itself

17. What is Gamification?
 Use of game-thinking
and game mechanics
in non-game contexts
in order to engage
users and solve
problems
 Used in applications
and processes to
improve user
engagement, ROI,
data quality, timeliness,
and learning

19. Invite a Friend
 Referrals increased
Dropbox signups by 60%
 Dropbox makes referrals
easy: via email or a
web-link
 Incentivized referrals –
when a person refers
someone, they both get
a 500MB increase
 Referrals from friends are
more trustworthy than
an ad ever could be

20. Social Media
 Incentivized social
media integration
 With each Follow on
Twitter, Connect with
Facebook or
Twitter, Dropbox
gives the user a
125MB increase
 Usage of such
Gamification
elements drives user
engagement

21. Dropquest!
 Contest that makes
users go through
different puzzles and
scavenger hunts
 Those who place in
the top 176 get free
space and/or free
swag
 Great way to
generate buzz

23. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

24. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

25. Competition
An overview of the other
sync/hosting cloud-based apps

26. Google Drive
 Can open up to 30 kinds of files right
inside the browser
 Using OCR text scanning Google scans
the images you upload to drive for text
and makes them searchable

27. SugarSync
 On just about every platform
 Lets you micro-manage what you want to
sync
 Lets you add password protection to files
and folders when sharing them publicly

28. Apple iCloud
 Arguably the simplest to use
 Instant sync works well between iOS and
Lion
 Benefits from Apple‟s ubiquity worldwide

29. Microsoft’s SkyDrive
 Offers 7 GBs of storage right off the bat –
Best in Class
 Excels at syncing documents created
using Microsoft Office products
 Creates an experience akin to iCloud but
for Microsoft Products

30. Box
 Popular with productivity apps like
QuickOffice
 Easy to integrate into your workflow
 Detailed version-tracking, a feed of every
sync and change you've made to a
document

31. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

32. Agenda
Introduction
Growth
Competition
Sustainability

33. Sustainability
What makes the service
sustainable in the long run?

34. Why is it sustainable?
 Uses a Freemium business model, where users
are offered a free account with a set storage
size and paid subscriptions for accounts with
more capacity
 Leverages on strong technological
background to offer reliable solution to
customer
 Focusses on „winning-over‟ users instead of
„buying‟ them out (minimal ad budget, focus
on gamification)

35. Why is it sustainable?
 Constant innovations and new features:
recently launched a feature to allow users
to automatically upload pics/videos from
their smartphones, tablet etc. to the cloud
 User modifications and customizations:
encourages novel utilization of the service
and creations of addons for the same

36. References
 Schramm, Mike "Dropbox hits 100 million users,
looking for great Dropbox stories", The Unofficial
Apple Weblog, 15 Nov 2012
 OPSWAT "December 2011 Market Share Report“
 Barret, Victoria "Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's
Hottest Startup”, Forbes, 15 Nov 2011
 Lacy, Sarah "Dropbox Raising Massive Round at a
$5B-Plus Valuation", TechCrunch, 19 Jul 2011
 Surowiekci, James “Innovative Consumption”, The
New Yorker, 16 May 2011
 Dropbox, Inc. – Official Website
(www.dropbox.com)

37. Thanks!
Lov Loothra
Namit Aggarwal
Prateek Chauhan
Meera Kohli
Sachin Gupta
Tanubhav Tyagi
Swati Singhal