Earlier this year, we predicted that cloud storage company Dropbox would be guaranteed massive success after receiving the reverse-kiss-of-death from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who dismissed the company as a “little startup.” Given Ballmer’s history of predicting that both the iPhone and Android would flop, we thought it was safe to say that his dismissal of Dropbox would look similarly ill-advised given enough time. And sure enough, The New York Times reports that Dropbox is making a move into Microsoft’s territory with a business-centric version of its popular cloud storage service.
Among other things, the new business-centric Dropbox will let users have their own work and personal Dropboxes to help keep their content separate. Personal accounts will still only be accessible to users while work accounts will be accessible to IT departments.
“We’re building a different kind of enterprise software,” explained Dropbox cofounder and CEO Drew Houston. “There’s been a dilemma for companies of whether to lock down all the information or keep your employees happy. We’re trying to do both.”
Houston also said that the company now has 4 million businesses using its service, including 97% of Fortune 500 companies. The number of Dropbox accounts has also doubled in the last year, growing from 100 million to 200 million.
In all, not bad for the “little startup” that could.
