# Dropbox

> A company that keeps a folder of your files in sync across all your devices.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Tech companies, Cloud
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dropbox/
- In Spanish: [Dropbox](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/dropbox/)

**Dropbox** was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, two MIT students. The story goes that Houston kept forgetting his USB drive, and wanted his files to just be everywhere. The product they built was simple to explain: a special folder on your computer. Anything you put in it is copied to Dropbox's servers and appears, automatically, in the same folder on your other computers and on your phone.

That idea of **file sync** sounds obvious now, but in 2008 it was a small revelation. You could also share a folder with someone and both of you would see the same files, always up to date, and recover earlier versions of a file you overwrote by mistake. Dropbox grew with a freemium model: a few free gigabytes, more space if you invited friends or paid a subscription.

Today it competes with services bundled into bigger platforms, like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Apple iCloud, and it sells more to teams and businesses: shared storage, document signing and tools for sending large files. It is listed on Nasdaq since 2018. A detail engineers like: Dropbox started out storing files on Amazon S3 and later moved most of that data to its own storage system and data centers to cut costs.

## An analogy

A magic drawer that exists in your house, at the office and in your backpack at the same time. Put a paper in any of them and it is in all three.

## Keep in mind

- Founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi.
- Core product: a folder that syncs across computers and phones.
- Grew with a freemium model and referral bonuses.
- Competes with Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud.

## Go deeper

- [Dropbox (official site)](https://www.dropbox.com/)
- [Dropbox on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox)

## Related terms

- [USB](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/usb/): The standard plug for connecting and charging almost everything.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Bit and byte](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bit-and-byte/): The smallest unit of digital information, and the group of eight that computers count in.
- [Google](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/google/): The search company that gives most products away and makes its money on ads.
- [Microsoft](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/microsoft/): The company of Windows and Office, now just as much a cloud company with Azure.
- [Apple](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/apple/): The company that sells the iPhone and the Mac, plus the services that run on them.
- [Amazon S3](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-s3/): A giant online drawer for files, rented by the gigabyte.
- [Data center](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/data-center/): A building full of servers where the internet, the cloud and AI actually run.