I remember using Dropbox as a teenager, when most of my files existed locally. I had to email files I wanted to share or use a USB stick, which was so easy to lose. Dropbox simplified file sharing, and by inviting a few friends, you could have enough space to keep many of your essential files always accessible, always online. I just recently discovered their initial Hacker News post and beta demo, which addressed such a clear issue in our society at a time when transferring files between Windows and Mac was not trivial. Services like iCloud and Google Drive didn't exist then.

As technology evolved, so did our relationship with data. People became more comfortable with online storage, and services kept even more of your files online. Somewhere along that period, Dropbox gradually became less essential.

Moving Away from Local Storage

So what exactly happened? In the 2010s, mobile computing evolved a lot and our smartphones became our primary devices, with iOS and Android offering native cloud storage deeply integrated within their operating systems. We started depending on Google and Apple to provide services to sync files across their ecosystems. Google Workspace (then G Suite) was increasingly adopted in workplaces, and when Google Photos launched with unlimited storage, it quickly undermined Dropbox's Carousel.

Tech giants simply started absorbing Dropbox's core functionality as standard features.

A note on why I wrote this: As a product manager, I often find myself drawn to stories of adaptation and reinvention. I was surprised to hear Dropbox mentioned more frequently in conversations and became curious about its journey.

File management itself transformed as people began creating content that was natively online. We stopped thinking about files altogether. Photos moved to photo services, designs to design tools, and documents became collaborative spaces that don't even have pages anymore. You no longer needed local storage for music or movies because streaming services provided access to entire libraries almost for free. There's much to be said about our loss of ownership over our creations, but that's a topic for another time.

Services like WeTransfer, Airdrop, Figma, and other collaboration tools changed how we share. We stopped attaching files and started sending links. Companies started using workspace tools for shared knowledge bases and document storage. Google, Microsoft, Notion offered complete solutions for shared storage without the need of anything local.

Through time, the paradigm that Dropbox introduced has been integrated into almost all the systems we use. For many, Dropbox became redundant.

Forced to Change

I wasn't alone in moving away from Dropbox during this period. These shifts created real challenges for the company as it tried to find its place in this changing landscape.

Many companies lost such battles, companies like Netscape, Evernote, Pebble, and numerous smaller apps that quietly disappeared as their features were integrated into new operating system updates. There are far too many stories like that. Dropbox managed to avoid disappearing entirely, but this period affected it deeply.

Dropbox needed to find a new direction. They had to work hard to understand their position in this new reality. In anticipation of an IPO in 2018, they worked extensively to redefine their vision, refresh their image, and build a robust foundation for the future. This required thinking about which customers they could better serve, how they could more effectively communicate their value, and how they could be seen as innovators in the market. However, since going public, Dropbox has experienced market volatility and struggled to demonstrate consistent growth, with share prices remaining only marginally higher than their initial offering.

Dropbox spent years working to redefine its purpose rather than simply fading away. Since its IPO, Dropbox has expanded its ecosystem, fuelled by acquisitions and partnerships to build services like document signatures, quick sharing, collaboration, and search. With time, Dropbox started competing with a totally new set of companies. They started to play in the sandboxes of Notion, DocuSign, Confluence and Airtable.

I recently heard Notion's CEO discuss that the tech market cycles through waves of bundling and unbundling, periods when many small services exist versus times when these services are offered as bundled solutions by larger companies. It appears that Dropbox's new strategy is to serve as a central hub for workspace collaboration. This approach addresses a real problem. Many of us are overwhelmed by tool fatigue, the constant switching between apps, the search for information scattered across different platforms. Dropbox seems to be betting that integration, not just another shiny new app, is what people really need to work better in teams.

Looking Forward

I find myself wondering if this approach might actually work. Having the original founder still running things might benefit Dropbox moving forward, as it maintains a connection to the initial vision. The same cannot be said for many other companies, where frequent leadership changes and significant investor influence impact much of the strategy.

I notice they are focusing on a new industry with their presence at Sundance Film Festival. The film industry is a perfect test case for Dropbox's approach. Film production involves massive file transfers, complex collaboration across teams, and strict version control. Unlike other industries that adopt the newest tools, the film industry still values stability and sometimes even uses traditional film cameras. They need a tool that helps files remain as they are, able to be shared across a big team while facilitating communication, tagging, and organisation. Some projects simply cannot function if their files lose ownership or become links that are hard to control. They might really just want files to remain files, but with better coordination capabilities.

What makes Dropbox's new focus particularly interesting is that they seem to be thoughtfully examining how work is changing and building tools that address genuine pain points.

Will Dropbox make it? I'm not sure, but I am glad that they keep creating, even after a few quite difficult years. In an industry where many such companies get acquired or their functions get copied by bigger players, Dropbox's story shows that there is a chance to fight through the lows and find your own direction. They had to find new relevance in a changed market dynamic and maybe we are finally ready for consolidation after years of fragmentation.

Today, the blue box almost left for the dustbin of tech history might just be worth watching again.

I'm curious to see where their story goes from here.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading,

Ilias

Final note: This enquiry was inspired by the conversation between Drew Houston and Lenny Rachitsky on Lenny's podcast earlier this year. I appreciate the nuanced reality that tech journeys are rarely simple success or failure stories. If you have your own experiences with Dropbox's evolution or thoughts on their direction, I'd genuinely enjoy hearing them!

Originally published on Substack on March 30, 2025.