Dropbox said today that it now has more than 400 million registered users — a jump from the last public figure about its user base in May last year.
Previously, the company had said it had 300 million users. The company didn’t say how many of them are monthly active users, but it still shows that Dropbox’s registered user base at the very least continues to grow. Dropbox’s edge is that it’s a dead-simple file-sharing service, but even something that might sound as boring as that is able to attract a huge audience. Dropbox also has more than 100,000 paying business customers, the company said.
Another vanity stat the company dropped was that users synchronize 1.2 billion files every day. But still, it’s a pretty large number that is technically difficult to manage — and having a technical edge has also been an advantage Dropbox has had over time.
In an interview with Bloomberg West, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said the majority of its users are not in the United States. “It’s more than two-thirds of our user base,” Houston said. “It’s been that way since the beginning. Most people are using the product for free, and if you need more space you can buy more.”
He also said on Bloomberg West that the company is used by 8 million businesses, up from 4 million a year and a half ago — and that the “vast majority” of Fortune 500 companies are using it in “some capacity.”
Earlier this week, Dropbox rolled out a redesigned Android application, and has actively been expanding its business services in order to diversify the company beyond just a consumer product. On the business front, Dropbox recently launched a tool that enables users to request files from people who aren’t using Dropbox via email.
The company — which has more than 1,200 employees — certainly faces challenges going forward. Its Dropbox for Business product is competing with a swath of larger and more experienced companies, and the way people share files is rapidly changing as more people use primarily mobile devices.
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