Dropbox was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007. The company came about not because they thought it would be a great business idea. Instead, it was developed out of need. Necessity is often the mother of invention and that’s what happened here. The pair, tired of emailing themselves documents when they were going to be working at different computers than the ones the files were created on, got to work creating an efficient file sharing system. By setting up a secure folder on a server, they were able to access files no matter where they were. The idea took off and quickly spread through the university.
As of Today, over 400 million people around the world are using Dropbox. They sync 1.2 billion files every day, create over 100,000 new shared folders and links every hour, and make 4,000 edits every second. They launch startups, create award-winning documentaries, and build their dream homes.
In addition, Dropbox also claims that Today, over 100,000 companies are using Dropbox for Business to work smarter across industries like media, construction, and education, to name just a few. Meaning that it’s more money to the company in addition to the increased popularity. Many more users have in the recent years deliberately purchased commercial accounts with Dropbox.
This milestone also follows the recent release the newly redesigned Dropbox for Android app. The new version of the app was built to make Dropbox on Android better, faster, and more usable. Not only does it sport a fresh look that’s right at home on the latest versions of Android.
Dropbox wasn’t the first to develop the idea of shared storage. Google began working on an online storage platform as early as 2006. Sadly, it took the search engine giant an additional six years before their idea was ready to be used by the world. Google Drive made its official debut on April 24, 2012. This is by far the closest competitor for dropbox in cloud storage.
