computer science

Dropbox

Dropbox is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Dropbox rather than just read about it. In short: Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a startup company, with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator.

Key takeaways

Dropbox belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Dropbox to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Dropbox from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a startup company, with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator. Dropbox has experienced criticism and generated controversy for issues including security breaches and privacy concerns.

Concept Dropbox brings files together in one central place by creating a special folder on the user's computer. The contents of these folders are synchronized to Dropbox's servers and to other computers and devices where the user has installed Dropbox, keeping the same files up-to-date on all devices. Dropbox uses a freemium business model, where users are offered a free account with set storage size. For more capacity and additional features, Dropbox offers paid subscriptions. Dropbox Basic users are given two gigabytes of free storage space. Dropbox offers computer apps for Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux computers, and mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets. In March 2013, the company acquired Mailbox, a popular email app, and in April 2014, the company introduced Dropbox Carousel, a photo and video gallery app. Both Mailbox and Carousel were shut down in December 2015, with key features from both apps implemented into the regular Dropbox service. In October 2015, it officially announced Dropbox Paper, its collaborative document editor.

History

Dropbox founder Drew Houston conceived the Dropbox concept after repeatedly forgetting his USB flash drive while he was a student at MIT. Houston founded Evenflow, Inc. in May 2007 as the company behind Dropbox, and shortly thereafter secured seed funding from Y Combinator. Dropbox was officially launched at 2008's TechCrunch Disrupt, an annual technology conference. Owing to trademark disputes between Domains by Proxy, Inc. and Evenflow, Dropbox's official domain name was "getdropbox.com" until October 2009, when it acquired its current domain, "dropbox.com". In October 2009, Evenflow, Inc. was renamed Dropbox, Inc. In an interview with TechCrunch's "Founder Stories" in October 2011, Houston explained that a demo video was released during Dropbox's early days, with one viewer being Arash Ferdowsi. Ferdowsi was "so impressed" that they formed a partnership. In regards to competition, Houston stated that "It is easy for me to explain the idea, it is actually really hard to do it."

User growth Dropbox saw steady user growth after its inception. It surpassed the 1 million registered users milestone in April 2009, followed by 2 million in September, and 3 million in November. It passed 50 million users in October 2011, 100 million in November 2012, 500 million in 2016, and 700 million in 2021.

Acquisitions In July 2012, Dropbox acquired TapEngage, an advertising startup. The following December, Dropbox acquired two companies; Audiogalaxy, a music-streaming startup, and Snapjoy, a company that provided photo organization tools for mobile platforms. In July 2013, Dropbox acquired Endorse, a startup which offered mobile coupons. In April 2014, Dropbox acquired photo-sharing company Loom (which would be shut down and integrated with the then-recently announced Carousel), and document-sharing startup Hackpad. Dropbox later announced in April 2017 that Hackpad would be shut down on July 19, with all notes being migrated to Dropbox Paper. In May 2014, Dropbox acquired Bubbli, a 3D graphics startup. In January 2015, Dropbox acquired CloudOn, a company that provided mobile applications for document editing and creation. At the same time, Dropbox told TechCrunch that CloudOn's base in Herzliya would become the first Dropbox office in Israel. In July, Dropbox acquired Clementine, an enterprise communication service. In January 2019, Dropbox acquired e-signature company HelloSign. The acquisition was reported to be Dropbox's largest to date, at a reported $230 million. In March 2021, Dropbox announced the acquisition of DocSend. DocSend offers a secure document sharing and analytics product. In October 2021, Dropbox announced that an agreement to acquire universal search company Command E has been signed. In November 2022, Dropbox announced that an agreement to acquire several key assets from Boxcryptor has been signed. Boxcryptor is a provider of end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption for cloud storage services. In December 2022, Dropbox announced the acquisition of form management platform FormSwift for $95 million. In August 2024, Dropbox announced the acquisition of AI scheduling tool Reclaim.ai.

Remote workforce At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Dropbox was one of the first companies to shift to a remote workforce. In October 2020, the company announced its "virtual first" initiative which would shift the company to a long-term remote working plan, which launched officially April 2021.

Workforce reductions In January 2021, Dropbox CEO Houston announced the layoff of 315 employees, which was approximately 11 percent of the workforce at the time. The company said the reductions were necessary in order to focus the company team structure and focus on top level priorities. The software firm also announced that COO Olivia Nottebohm would be leaving the company on February 5, 2021. In the same month, Dropbox announced it would sublease much of its office space in a transition to remote work. In April 2023, Houston announced the layoff of roughly 500 employees, or 16 percent of the current workforce. The company cited a slowdown in growth and a need for different, AI-focused skill-sets. In October 2024, Houston announced the layoff of roughly 528 employees, or 20 percent of the current workforce.

Leadership change In May 2026, Dropbox announced that co-founder Drew Houston will step down from the role of chief executive officer to assume the role of executive chairman. The company said Houston will serve as co-CEO with Ashraf Alkarmi for an initial period before transitioning to the chairman role. Alkarmi, who is the company's chief product officer, will become the company's permanent CEO thereafter. Dropbox also announced the appointment of Mike Torres, who will replace Alkarmi as chief product officer from Google in July 2026.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Dropbox

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Dropbox claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Dropbox before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Dropbox ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Dropbox

In research: Dropbox appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Dropbox in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Dropbox is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2018 initial public offerings, Cloud applications, Cloud storage, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Dropbox outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Dropbox in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Dropbox means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Dropbox out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Dropbox in simple terms?

Why does Dropbox matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Dropbox?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Dropbox.