Recent research has shown that cloud storage services are more popular than ever and some have gone so far as to predict that there will be over a billion cloud storage subscribers coming on board over the next four years. If that happens or not remains to be seen, but plenty of evidence exists that consumers now use cloud storage services daily and if that prediction does turn out to be true, Dropbox is already in position to be home to at least 10 percent of those users.
That’s right, according to a blog post by CEO Drew Houston on the company’s official blog, this November is a special month because the service now has over 100 million subscribers. That’s a truly impressive figure for any online service and goes a long way towards demonstrating just how useful the services Dropbox and other cloud storage companies are right now.
From Humble Beginnings to Booming Business
Dropbox was founded just five years ago and it certainly has a unique story to tell regarding how it came about. Like many other products and services throughout history, the company was founded when a real need emerged. Its founder tells the story:
Once upon a time, Dropbox had its humble beginnings in a Boston train station when I forgot my USB stick at home. We’re still unsure if it was fate or fluke, but one thing’s stayed the same all these years: each of us has a unique reason for using Dropbox.
Those unique reasons have definitely kept Dropbox a hit with fans who want a safe way to store their data. The company has promised that plenty more improvements are on the way, but for now it is meeting needs in a big way and introducing a lot of people to the benefits of storing their files in the cloud. Looking to the future, Houston noted that his service will soon be available in two European language versions: Spanish and Italian.
Houston cited several examples of how customers are using the Dropbox service today, including a 4th grade class that makes and shares their music worldwide, a high school football team that utilizes the service to better their organization and even a Candian subscriber who’s put the service to use as a way to record and arrange important information about his family’s history. Dropbox is not alone in claiming that everyone uses cloud storage differently. It’s certainly a truth that has helped make services of this type as popular as they are today. Versatility is always a strong selling point.
Dropbox Growth Has Been Inspiring
When TechCrunch writer Josh Constine recently published an interview with Drew Houston , the CEO’s passion was definitely on display. Houston is clearly a driven individual who cares a lot about the service his company offers. He told his interviewer:
At this scale, when you help people save 10 minutes or an hour, you’re saving lifetimes of pain… And we’re just getting started.
It is difficult to dispute those claims because between January of 2010 and November of 2012, Dropbox subscribers shot up from 4 million to over 100 million. That means the service has grown by 25 times its size in less than 3 yeara, a phenomenal rate of growth by anyone’s standards. What’s more, each day Dropbox hosts an average of 1 billion saved files – closing in on half a trillion files annually. That’s a massive jump from the previously published figures that showed 50 million registered users and half a billion files saved every 2 days. Those figures were published in May of 2012 which means that in just six months, the service has grown at a head-spinning rate.
Just who all is using Dropbox to drive these membership figures so high? According to Houston, the company’s user base is vast. He told the press:
Our users are trapeze artists, high school football coaches — I got cornered by a couple of theoretical physicists who said Dropbox lets them collaborate across the world and share their experiments’ results. They were raving about how it’s driving their research.
What might really stun people, however, is to realize just how small the team is that runs Dropbox. While they had under 100 people when they get started, today 250 employees work to keep Dropbox working around the clock. They’ve got an enormous job to do, but their CEO says they are among the best and that he’s extremely proud of their efforts. Big names such as VP of Engineering, Aditya Agarwal, are part of that team. Tech savvy readers may remember him from Facebook where he built not only that social network’s search function, but also their News Feed.
Remember Dropbox is Just One Choice of Many
While they are certainly leaders in their industry, it is important to realize that there are many other cloud storage services available on the market today and finding the one that works best for your needs is what matters. Some people even go so far as to use more than one service just to ensure that their data is fully protected. After all, we store everything from important documents for work, our family photos, favorite songs and that next great novel in progress in the cloud. So if Dropbox works for you – fantastic! If not, there are plenty of other options and we encourage you to explore the reviews on our site because we’ve taken an in depth look at many of them right here.
If you use or have used Dropbox, we’d love to hear from you. How has the service been for you and have you noticed any changes since it began its massive growth phase in May of this year? If you don’t use Dropbox and you’ve got a reason you want to share, we encourage you to speak up, too. You can leave a comment below with your opinions, insights or questions and we will be sure to respond to you as quickly as we can.
The post Dropbox Reaches 100 Million Users: ‘Saving Lifetimes of Pain’ appeared first on Cloud Storage . us.