In this report: -Swot of Dropbox -Pestel of Dropbox -Framework to predict the future of Dropbox

1. Case report #2
Dropbox
Cloud storage services
Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management
GEST-S-484 Technology & Strategy
Professor Manuel Hensmans
Group 4
Andrea Balducci
Axel Forrez
Gabriel Spinnler
Thibaut Van Vracem

2. Dropbox
is
an
American
cloud
storage
and
online
backup
services
company
founded
in
2007
and
headquartered
in
San
Francisco.
Since
the
launch
of
its
first
product
in
2008,
Dropbox
has
experienced
a
tremendous
growth,
both
in
terms
of
profits
and
number
of
users.
This
second
case
report
focuses
on
the
future
of
Dropbox
and
the
development
of
strategic
options
for
the
company.
Near
future
Case
question
5:
perform
a
TOWS
analysis
of
your
organization
SWOT analysis
Strengths
(1)
Large
consumer
base
and
strong
brand;
with
more
than
275
Million
users,
Dropbox
is
the
leading
player
in
the
cloud
storage
industry.
The
penetration
of
Dropbox
within
businesses
is
also
indirectly
very
high
as
many
consumers
also
use
this
service
for
work
purposes.
Dropbox
is
seen
as
a
‘hot
company’
and
has
been
able
to
attract
a
lot
of
positive
‘earned
media’.
(2)
Innovative
start-­‐up
company
culture;
the
company
follows
the
‘simplify
your
life’
mindset
and
foster
innovation
through
employee
freedom.
Furthermore,
the
users/
employee
ratio
is
extremely
high
(more
than
300.000
users
per
employee).
(3)
Ability
to
raise
funds;
Dropbox
is
backed
by
investors
like
Sequoia
Capital,
arguably
one
of
the
best
tech
venture
capital
firm.
With
a
lot
of
money
recently
raised
and
favorable
prospects
for
the
future,
Dropbox
is
certainly
able
to
get
funding
to
fuel
its
growth.
(4)
Attractive
and
quality
products;
consumers
praise
the
simplicity,
rapidity
and
uniformity
across
devices
of
the
Dropbox
product.
Moreover,
Dropbox
recently
announced
the
future
launch
of
‘Project
Harmony’
which
will
allow
users
to
work
together
simultaneously
on
any
document
in
Microsoft
Office
applications.
On
the
whole,
the
ability
to
develop
user-­‐friendly
solutions
is
a
real
strength.
(5)
Strategic
partnerships
and
acquisitions;
with
more
than
100.000
compatible
applications
on
its
platform
and
partners
as
Facebook,
Dell
and
Samsung,
Dropbox
is
able
to
attract
more
customers
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

3. and
bring
more
value
to
its
product.
The
ability
to
create
and
develop
strategic
partnerships
and
integrate
acquired
companies
is
definitively
a
strength.
(6)
Charismatic
and
visionary
leadership;
Drew
Houston,
CEO
of
the
company,
created
Dropbox
initially
as
a
way
to
solve
its
own
problems.
He
has
a
clear
vision
for
the
long-­‐term
future
and
under
his
leadership,
the
company
has
experienced
an
exponential
growth.
(7)
Extremely
talented
workforce;
Dropbox
is
particularly
good
at
attracting
extremely
qualified
employees.
They
are
literally
trying
to
hire
the
best
in
the
world
for
each
position
(e.g.
Python
language
inventor,
Facebook
Like
button
designer
and
more
recently,
Condoleezza
Rice,
who
will
bring
her
international
relations
expertise
to
the
table).
Weaknesses
(1)
Weaker
user
data
security
than
competitors;
as
Dropbox
is
not
yet
compliant
with
numerous
quality
standards
like
HIPAA,
FERPA
and
SAS70,
it
is
being
perceived
as
having
a
weak
security
system
in
comparison
to
its
main
competitors.
(2)
Late
entrance
in
the
B2B
segment;
the
company
has
from
its
beginning
targeted
individuals
as
well
as
corporation.
This
has
resulted
in
a
lack
of
focus
on
the
latter.
Together
with
this
lack
of
focus,
it
also
lacks
differentiation,
namely
because
Dropbox
is
mainly
focused
on
cloud
storage
while
competitors
provide
more
cloud
computing
services.
(3)
Lower
space
offered/
price
ratio;
in
comparison
to
its
competitors
Dropbox
offer
less
free
space
to
free
users.
In
addition,
the
competitors’
prices
are
also
more
attractive
for
premium
users.
(4)
Potential
great
man
dependence;
the
earlier
described
strength
automatically
forms
a
weakness.
As
a
large
part
of
the
company
thrives
on
Houston’s
successes,
it
is
possible
that
without
him,
the
company
would
have
difficulties
defining
its
strategy
for
the
future.
(5)
Low
presence
in
emerging
markets;
Dropbox
is
extremely
strong
in
North
America
and
Europe
(with
more
than
60%
of
pageviews
generated).
However,
the
major
emerging
markets
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

4. account
for
a
very
small
share:
3%
of
Dropbox’s
pageviews
in
Brazil,
5%
in
India,
2,5%
in
Russia
and
even
less
in
China
and
Indonesia1.
(6)
Low
premium
users/free
users
conversion
rate;
Dropbox
follows
a
classical
freemium
business
model.
Although
the
company’s
user
base
is
growing
faster
than
Box’,
the
conversion
rate
of
a
user
actually
paying
for
the
service
is
only
between
3
and
4
%
in
comparison
to
Box’
6
to
8%.
Opportunities
(1)
Trend
towards
the
cloud
for
businesses;
firms
are
more
and
more
seeking
cloud
solution
to
store,
share
and
organize
their
files.
Linked
to
this,
is
the
growing
demand
of
corporations
to
access
more
collaborative
tools
and
content
management
solutions
on
the
same
platforms.
(2)
Rise
of
emerging
markets
in
the
cloud;
analysts
predict
the
emerging
markets
will
outpace
cloud
storage
spendings
in
more
mature
regions
and
in
turn
drive
the
worldwide
enterprise
storage
growth
in
the
next
few
years.
(3)
Growing
global
internet
penetration;
as
internet
is
more
and
more
present
(especially
in
emerging
economies),
more
and
more
users
can
access
cloud
services.
(4)
Businesses
seeking
to
exploit
big
data;
companies
can
nowadays
collect
data
much
more
easily
and
are
looking
for
ways
to
analyse
and
exploit
this
new
goldmine.
(5)
Governments
moving
to
cloud
computing
too;
public
institutions
are
also
eager
to
benefit
from
the
benefits
of
the
cloud.
(6)
Consumers
increasingly
looking
for
open-­‐source
applications;
cloud
computing
could
be
the
next
stop
for
public
collaborative
software
development.
Threats
(1)
Plummeting
price
of
cloud
storage;
cloud
storage
is
becoming
a
commodity
as
the
market
prices
are
going
down
(driven
down
by
the
likes
of
Amazon
and
Google).
Being
too
focused
on
cloud
storage
could
lead
to
a
strong
erosion
of
profits
in
the
future.
1 Retrieved April 2014 from: http://www.appappeal.com/maps/dropbox
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

5. (2)
Unfavorable
public
opinion;
there
is
a
risk
than
consumers
start
to
develop
a
negative
opinion
towards
Dropbox
as
the
company
grows
larger,
more
focused
towards
businesses
and
if
security
scandals
continue
to
arise.
Rising
privacy
concerns
have
already
been
affecting
other
internet
giants
(e.g.
Facebook,
Google).
(3)
Increased
global
and
local
competition;
Many
giant
software
companies
are
developing
their
own
global
cloud
solution
(e.g.
Google
Drive,
SkyDrive,
iCloud);
with
their
financial
resources,
reputation
and
ancillary
services,
they
are
a
real
threat.
Moreover,
regional
competitors
are
emerging,
especially
in
emerging
markets
(e.g.
True
Box
in
Brazil);
they
are
better
positioned
to
capture
local
demand
in
view
of
privacy
issues
faced
by
the
global
players
from
the
US.
(4)
Disruption
within
the
cloud
storage
industry;
differentiated
competitors
may
arise
and
disrupt
the
industry.
One
recent
example
is
Transporter,
a
cloud
storage
hardware
solution,
which
allows
buyers
to
create
their
own
private
cloud
server,
therefore
overcoming
the
security
concern.
(5)
Government
blockades
in
emerging
markets;
foreign
governments
may
look
unfavourably
at
US
companies
hosting
national
data
on
their
servers.
Therefore,
there
is
a
risk
for
US
cloud
storage
companies
to
be
banned
from
operating
on
several
markets.
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

6. TOWS analysis
Strengths
and
Opportunities
(SO)
(A)
Leverage
the
current
indirect
penetration
of
Dropbox
within
businesses
to
focus
efforts
on
Dropbox
for
Businesses;
with
employees
using
personal
accounts
at
work
and
a
strong
product
with
many
business
applications
(e.g.
Project
Harmony),
all
the
factors
are
there
to
fully
take
advantage
of
the
rising
B2B
demand
for
cloud
services.
(B)
Partner
its
way
in
emerging
markets;
Dropbox
can
take
advantage
of
the
rise
of
emerging
markets
by
using
its
strengths
AND
overcoming
its
low
presence
in
the
emerging
market
weakness:
the
company
can
leverage
its
ability
to
partner,
strong
brand
perception
and
international
relations
skills
to
ally
with
companies
in
emerging
countries.
As
with
Facebook
in
the
West,
a
strategic
partnership
with
social
network
sites
in
emerging
countries
could
increase
Dropbox’
local
presence.
Potential
partners
would
be
Sina
Weibo,
Kaixin001,
Qzone
and
RenRen
in
China.
Partnerships
with
telecom
operators
are
also
an
option.
The
Dropbox’s
brand
track
record
in
the
US
and
Europe
and
the
product
quality
will
help
in
the
partnering
process.
(C)
Transform
users
into
developers;
use
as
a
strength
the
large
consumer
base
at
hand
and
the
simplicity
of
Drobox’
product
to
allow
users
to
work
on
an
open
source
software
platform
to
develop
ideas
that
will
add
value
to
Dropbox,
thus
boosting
open
innovations.
Weaknesses
and
Opportunities
(WO)
(A)
Provide
big
data
exploitation
tools
to
customers;
As
Dropbox
is
already
providing
data
storage
and
data
organization
to
business
customer,
providing
tools
to
exploit
it
could
be
a
next
step.
This
will
overcome
the
lack
of
differentiation
of
the
company
and
allow
them
to
continue
charging
high
prices.
(B)
Target
governments
and
public
institutions
as
customers;
this
is
a
risky
challenge
but
if
Dropbox
is
able
to
provide
cloud
services
to
governments,
it
will
send
a
signal
that
the
company
security
standards
are
really
high
and
change
CIOs’
opinions,
which
could
lead
to
a
virtuous
circle.
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

7. Strengths
and
Threats
(ST)
(A)
Focus
on
cloud
computing
and
content
management;
in
order
to
overcome
the
commoditization
of
cloud
storage
threat,
Dropbox
could
shift
its
focus
toward
collaborative
cloud
services,
the
new
value
pools
in
the
industry.
The
company
can
leverage
the
following
strengths:
ability
to
develop
user-­‐friendly
functionalities,
new
strategic
partnerships
(e.g.
Akamai
Technologies,
KIO
Networks)
and
its
talented
workforce.
Moreover,
with
its
large
user
base,
Dropbox
can
easily
reach
customers
with
these
new
services.
(B)
Anticipate
the
potential
disruption
by
acquiring
or
partnering
with
disrupters;
Transporter
can
be
very
attractive
for
companies
looking
for
more
files
security
and
could
very
well
become
a
dominant
design
in
the
B2B
segment.
Therefore,
acquiring
such
companies
and
combining
their
hardware
with
Dropbox
software
can
be
a
strategic
option.
In
the
same
vein,
partnering
with
this
company
is
a
possibility
too.
Dropbox
can
here
take
advantage
of
its
ability
to
partner
and
raise
funds.
Moreover,
with
its
clear
vision
and
talented
workforce,
Dropbox
can
bring
Transporter’s
technology
to
new
heights
and
a
larger
customer
base.
(C)
Invest
in
international
relations
with
emerging
markets;
to
overcome
potential
governmental
blockades
and
face
the
local
competition,
Dropbox
should
invest
in
international
relations
(e.g.
with
C.
Rice’s
expertise
and
by
hiring
new
qualified
employees).
Weaknesses
and
Threats
(WT)
(A)
Go
premium
in
cloud
computing;
as
cloud
storage
prices
are
plummeting,
expanding
the
offer
to
content
management,
collaborative
applications,
big
data
management
and
other
innovative
value-­‐adding
applications
in
the
B2B
segment
could
allow
the
company
to
maintain
its
high
margins.
By
doing
so,
Dropbox
can
minimize
its
weaknesses
in
terms
of
lack
of
focus
and
differentiation
and
transform
its
higher
prices
(compared
to
competitors)
into
an
advantage.
(B)
Segment
the
B2B
market
and
increase
focus;
the
idea
here
is
to
segment
the
B2B
market
into
two
categories:
(1)
firms
looking
for
more
security
and
a
more
private
(for
which
Transporter
could
be
attractive)
and
(2)
firms
looking
for
a
more
opened
cloud,
more
collaboration
with
partners
and
with
lower
security
requirements.
The
disruptive
threat,
the
lack
of
differentiation
and
the
security
weaknesses
could
be
avoided
by
focusing
on
the
latter
and
by
providing
more
inter-­‐firm
collaboration
through
the
cloud.
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

8. Long-­‐term
vision
Case
question
6:
what
is
your
vision
for
the
future?
PESTEL
Analysis
P
• Intensifying
Government’s
control
on
Internet
traffic,
privacy
issues
(e.g.:
NSA-­‐PRISM
program)
• Internal
political
issues
will
arise
as
a
barrier
to
adoption
• Different
policies
across
countries
(information
privacy,
security,
national
network
policy
and
jurisdiction)
• Difficulties
to
address
issues
such
as
security,
privacy,
location
and
data
ownership
for
policy
makers
• US-­‐EU
Safe
Harbour
Act
and
European
Union
Data
Protection
Directive:
give
a
close
look
at
the
evolution
of
the
relationship
between
this
EU
and
US.
E
• Acceleration
of
the
adoption
following
the
economic
crisis:
cheaper
cloud
models
• From
a
capital-­‐intensive
transaction
to
an
on-­‐going
operational
expense:
pay-­‐per-­‐use
model
more
flexible
than
old
IT
model
• Quick
cloud
storage
prices
drop
• Growth
of
the
cloud
services
market,
in
both
B2B
and
B2C
segments
• Emerging
markets
will
lead
the
demand
S
• Populations
more
and
more
tech
savvy:
need
to
access
to
your
data
from
everywhere,
anytime
and
in
all
devices.
• File
sharing
is
increasingly
common
(sync
‘n
share)
• Change
in
companies’
culture:
data
stored
outside
of
the
company
• Confidentiality
exigencies
from
the
customers
different
across
countries
T
• Development
of
mobile
internet:
More
and
more
connected
devices
• A
lot
of
technologies
underpin
the
advent
of
cloud
computing
(e.g.
virtualization,
SOA,
Internet,
universal
high-­‐speed
bandwidth)
E
• More
environmentally
friendly
as
outsourcing
will
help
reduce
the
energy
consumption
(environmental
friendly
datacenters)
L
• Cross-­‐countries
differences
in
terms
of
companies-­‐
and
customers-­‐related
information
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

9. Scenario analysis – Confidentiality/security and commoditization
Two
variables
have
been
considered:
Commodity:
All
services
such
as
access
to
Internet,
cloud
storage,
become
so
cheap
that
it
will
be
affordable
and
accessible
for
all
the
world
population.
(E,
T,
E)
Security/Confidentiality:
How
secure
and
confidential
the
cloud
storage
will
be
in
the
future.
In
other
words,
how
the
government
and
the
law
will
regulate
the
industry
of
cloud
computing
and
transfer
of
data
across
countries.
(e.g.
Dropbox
putting
Condoleezza
Rice
(NSA
surveillance
advocate)
on
its
board
can
shock
privacy
advocates).
(P,
S,
L)
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

10. Who is the strategic customer? From B2C to businesses
There
are
different
stakeholders
in
the
cloud
industry:
• Providers
• Developers
• Users
(B2C
or
B2B)
• Prosumers;
the
future
may
enable
users
to
become
providers
and
consumers
at
the
same
time
For
now,
the
profit
pools
are
switching
from
premium
consumers
to
businesses
that
buy
extra
storage
space
and
other
features
that
are
not
available
for
free.
Indeed,
the
conversion
rate
on
the
consumer
side
is
rather
low
and
as
we
seen
above,
businesses
are
more
and
more
eager
to
adopt
cloud
solutions.
One
of
Dropbox’s
recent
strategies
to
hit
business
customers
was
to
give
away
free
storage
space
to
university
students
for
two
years,
through
the
Space
Race.
Two
advantage
of
this
strategy:
firstly,
the
students
will
be
“dependent”
of
this
surplus
storage
and
may
be
willing
to
pay
in
order
to
keep
this
storage
space
at
the
end
of
the
two
years.
Secondly,
university
students
are
often
future
employees
in
corporations.
This
will
allow
to
Dropbox
to
indirectly
penetrate
the
companies
segment
and
will
increase
its
bargaining
power
in
selling
Dropbox
for
Business.
Key customer success factors
Since
we
have
identified
businesses
as
the
main
paying
customers,
we
will
focus
on
the
KSF
in
reaching
the
B2B
segment.
(1)
High
security;
CIOs
often
have
high
security
requirements.
That
is
why
gaining
their
trust
is
crucial.
Therefore,
compliance
with
security
standards
and
the
law
is
key.
Moreover,
since
Dropbox
aim
to
be
a
global
player,
the
firm
will
have
to
manage
the
different
national
laws
in
terms
of
data
protection
and
availability.
(2)
Attractive
ancillary
services
and
products;
Customers
need
more
than
simply
cloud
storage.
They
need
complementary
cloud
services
to
create
real
value
for
the
customer
(e.g.
enhanced
collaboration,
easier
files
access
and
content
management,
integration
with
e-­‐mails).
(3)
Attractive
price;
business
customers
have
a
lower
price
sensitivity
and
different
incentives
than
consumers
but
the
price
remain
an
important
decision
factor;
Dropbox
operates
in
a
very
competitive
landscape.
Segmentation
can
also
help
to
capture
more
value
(e.g.
company
size,
functionalities
required).
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

11. Strategic groups cloud computing
Currently,
in
the
cloud
computing
industry,
there
three
type
of
services:
• SaaS
(Software
as
a
Service)
• Paas
(Platform
as
a
Service)
• Iaas
(Infrastructure
as
a
Services)
Dropbox
is
currently
in
the
SaaS
part,
but
we
forecast
that
in
the
long
term,
it
will
move
slowly
to
a
PaaS
model,
as
Google
and
Microsoft
already
did.
The
three
categories
differ
from
each
other
following
two
different
criteria
(the
axis
variable
below):
(A)
Control;
how
much
of
your
computing
do
you
trust
to
other
providers,
and
how
much
do
you
keep
in
house?
The
higher
on
the
ordinate
axis,
the
bigger
the
scale
of
the
company.
In
the
bottom
you
have
individuals
(end
users).
(B)
Value
created;
the
ability
of
the
Cloud
service
to
justify
premium
prices.
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

12. (1)
SaaS
(Gmail,
Google
Doc,
Box,
Dropbox,
SAP,
Microsoft
Office
365)
• Easy
to
use:
everything
can
be
managed
by
vendors
• Targeting
End-­‐Users
(2)
PaaS
(Amazon,
Google
app
engine,
Facebook)
• Most
complex
• Highly
scalable
• High
intractability
and
effectiveness
of
large
staff
(3)
IaaS
(Amazon
EC2,
Rackspace,
Windows
Azure,
Google
compute
engine).
• Users
maintain
complete
responsibility
for
the
maintenance
of
the
system
Mobility barriers
«
The
barriers
from
SaaS
to
PaaS
are
that
their
systems
are
tailored
to
customer-­‐specific
applications
and
internal
infrastructure,
limiting
PaaS
use
to
small,
non-­‐critical
applications
which
require
quick,
global
deployment
The
barriers
to
using
IaaS
services
are
similar
to
PaaS,
where
CIOs
struggle
with
trade-­‐offs
between
agility
and
issues
of
cost,
security,
and
availability
»2
The
Barrier
for
Dropbox
to
move
towards
the
upper-­‐right
corner
will
be:
(1)
make
investment
to
improve
their
security
and
thus
convince
businesses
to
adopt
Dropbox;
(2)
create
value
differently
than
simply
supply
cloud
storage
as
it
is
becoming
a
commodity.
2
http://ceo2ceos.com/2011/06/what-­‐are-­‐the-­‐barriers-­‐to-­‐moving-­‐to-­‐the-­‐cloud/
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

13. Vision statement – How to realize it?
Dropbox’s
long-­‐term
vision
is
to
‘bury
the
hard
drive’
and
be
the
world’s
leading
storage
provider.
Furthermore,
their
focus
will
be
on
centralizing
all
the
world
data
on
the
cloud
(pictures
to
share
with
friends,
files
to
collaborate
with
you
colleagues,
music,
etc.).
The
goal
is
that
everyone
should
be
able
to
access
all
their
files
and
data
through
the
cloud
everywhere,
at
any
time,
and
be
able
to
share
it
with
everyone
quickly
and
easily.
Dropbox
also
wishes
to
increase
the
world
productivity
by
simplifying
people’s
life
and
companies’
operations.
In
order
to
achieve
these
long-­‐term
goals,
Dropbox
will
have
to
improve
security
in
order
to
successfully
reach
businesses.
Buying
or
partnering
with
companies
specialized
in
data
security
and
encryption
is
a
way
to
achieve
this
objective.
Moreover,
Dropbox
will
have
to
create
value
by
increasing
the
number
of
added
value
services;
in
other
words,
the
firm
must
transform
itself
into
a
cloud
computing
company
rather
than
a
files-­‐
storage
and
-­‐sharing
company.
Attracting
developers,
generating
more
applications
internally
(like
Carousel)
and
acquiring
specialized
firms
will
help
to
transform
Dropbox
into
an
application
platform
with
the
broadest
service
range
possible.
Taking
over
companies
to
integrate
them
in
the
Dropbox
architecture
is
particularly
interesting;
acquisitions
of
start-­‐ups
in
several
domains
(e.g.
music,
video,
books,
project
management)
will
allow
Dropbox
users
to
access
and
share
all
kinds
of
files
within
the
Dropbox
environment.
Having
just
landed
$500
million
in
credit
financing,
Dropbox
is
acquiring
a
lot
of
Start-­‐up
such
as:
• Zulip:
corporate
chat
tool
• Loom:
photo
sharing
app
• Hackpad:
collaborative
document
tool
• Readmill:
e-­‐book
reader
What
is
now
missing
to
increase
the
range
of
services,
and
so
increase
the
productivity
and
also
the
file
sharing?
And
at
the
same
time
increase
the
conversion
rate
from
free
to
premium.
• Music
sharing/streaming
service
(e.g.
Soundwave)
• Video
sharing/streaming
service
• Professional
inter-­‐firms
communication
tools
• Add-­‐ons
developed
for
Dropbox
(to-­‐do
lists,
document
scanning)
• Enable
data
adaptability
for
new
devices
(wearable
technology),
like
Spritz
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

14. As
the
global
internet
penetration
continues
to
increase,
hard
drives
will
become
less
and
less
attractive
in
comparison
to
cloud
storage.
This
is
also
true
for
costly
hardware
storage
built-­‐in
devices,
like
computers
or
smartphones.
There
is
a
real
opportunity
for
Dropbox
to
take
advantage
of
this
by
creating
strategic
partnerships
with
computers
or
smartphone
vendors
and
be
the
sole
provider
of
storage
space
for
the
devices
sold
by
these
companies.
While
partners
would
enjoy
cost
reductions
due
to
the
disappearance
of
hard
drive,
Dropbox
would
gain
access
to
their
customer
pool.
Finally,
customers
would
enjoy
lower
device
prices
and
more
storage
space.
In
conclusion,
we
see
Dropbox
in
10
years
as
a
company
that
will
continue
to
increase
the
worldwide
productivity
and
the
“shareability”
of
all
sorts
of
data,
from
all
possible
devices.
This
will
be
done
by
integrating
in
the
platform
an
extremely
large
range
of
services
applied
to
various
domains
such
as
music,
video,
gaming,
that
are
still
missing
in
the
current
Dropbox
portfolio.
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox

15. Bibliography
Alexandre
Scialom
(Feb.
2012).
“Which
Company
Will
Be
Worth
More
In
The
End:
Dropbox
Or
Box?”.
Forbes.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
Appappeal.
“Dropbox
usage
per
country”.
Retrieved
April
2014
from:
http://www.appappeal.com/maps/dropbox
Christof
Weinhardt
&
al.
(Oct.
2009).
“Cloud
Computing
–
A
Classification,
Business
Models,
and
Research
Directions”.
Business
&
Information
Systems
Engineering,
Vol.
1,
391-­‐399.
The
Economist
(Dec.
2012).
“Dropbox
:
A
nebulous
future”.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/
Liz
Gannes
(Apr.
2014).
“As
It
Becomes
an
App
Platform,
Dropbox
Gobbles
Up
More
Than
One
App
Startup
Per
Month”.
Retrieved
from:
www.recode.net/
Nur
Ainaa
Mohd
Bakri
&
al.
(2012).
“PESTLE
Analysis
on
Cloud
Computing”.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.academia.edu/
Rackspace
Support
(Oct.
2012).
“Understanding
the
Cloud
Computing
Stack:
SaaS,
PaaS,
Iaas”.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/
Skytap.
(Mar.
2011).
“Demystifying
SaaS,
PaaS,
and
IaaS”.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.skytap.com/blog/
GEST-­‐S-­‐484
Technology
&
Strategy
Group
4
–
Dropbox