1a drobox corporate history

Dropbox is one of the first cloud file storage system. Its name is derived from the services it offers. It was first launched into the market as free product but additional features are available when one a consumer subscribes. Dropbox boasts of an estimated 300 million users. In 2014 it expanded its market share by catering for big corporate companies. In 2016 it diversified further by introducing the dropbox education service that would cater for colleges and universities. Consumers who have subscribed to dropbox have access to more than 1 terabyte storage space as well other additional special features such as sharing control and remote wipes. Dropbox has applications for computers such as Microsoft window, apple mac operating system and Linux .Mobile users who have android operating system and other systems also have access to it (Meister, Wong, 2017).

Dropbox operates by creating a folder on a user’s computer machine. The user’s personal content are then synched to drop box’s domain servers and to other devise which the consumer has installed dropbox application hence enabling personal files to be updated on all devices. Most users are offered with free space and account which has a specific amount of storage space (freemium business model).basic consumers receive 2 GB amount of space. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

Competition in the cloud storage industry is tough. Dropbox faces stiff competition from corporate giants lie Microsoft and Google. But drop box has been able to muscle its way up in the industry. The headquarters of dropbox is located in San Francisco. Paul Jun heads finance strategic department. He helps the company to adapt to the dynamic industry and to get the necessary tools for market evaluation purposes. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

 

Drop box was begun by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in the year, 2007.They studied computer science at Massachusetts institute of technology. The idea came about when Houston was on a distant trip and had a deadline to beat. He had forgotten his Usb and could not access the file. He teamed up with Arash and they began to work on the code that would birth dropbox. They were part of the group that was accepted into Silicon Valley startup, acceleratory Y combinatory .Dropbox was officially launched in 2008 at a function that hosts such innovations called techcrunch50.From then, its popularity has risen due to its combination of simplicity and offering free storage space. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

2a        Within the cloud storage industry, dropbox competes against firms like Microsoft and Google. They are the two main firms that have a lion’s share in the industry. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

2b In the software as a service (Saas) business model they compete against Atlassian and LinkedIn. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

2c In the windows devices cloud backup applications they compete against companies such as Microsoft office, Google drive, Google store, googles app engine. (Meister, Wong, 2017).

3g Global market for business=US$904million, dropbox market share is 24% of the global market share which is: 0.24*904million. $216,960,000 is the market share of dropbox (Meister &Wong, 2017).

4 Companies like dropbox provide freemiums services so that they may attract potential customers who can pay for subscription services they offer.  Freemiums can transform free customers to paying customers. The key objective of freemium is to give just the right amount of access to the service one offers so that it can develop enough interest for the consumer to start paying for the whole product. The interest is developed when the user has become so accustomed to the service and cannot stop using the product. This forces him or her to pay for extra services. Freemium also provides coverage of the product in the media. This enables the product to have a wider outreach (Meister & Wong, 2017).

5i         go- to -market usually describes how a company was able to market a product to its target consumers. It considers resources available such as price, distribution and capital needed for the work. In this case, due to dropbox customers’, who are varied in size that is from small companies to individuals, they needed to use the self-service, go- to-market strategy. The self service is in line with the company’s original model of changing free customers into paying customers i.e. Freemium. Personal users also have the option of using dropbox in their phones or computers and at the same time pay a subscription fee. Therefore, self-service go- to -market strategy has the capability of offering services to large companies and individual customers. The self-service go- to- market strategy is also cheap and simple for most customers. Self-service creates an easier way to rate a company and to get feedback directly from the consumers. Hence, one can know if its innovation is working or it is failing. Self-service often speeds up the branding process by making it simple and cutting out a lot of procedures that may interfere on the way (Meister & Wong, 2017).

Part two

According to the Wall Street article, ‘AT & T and the danger of vertical integration,’ I would block the acquisition of warner brothers by AT & T.  Because AT & T will gain the power of monopoly. Which means that it will exert immense control over the means of distribution and content ownership hence killing its competition. This will be a disadvantage to the consumers. This will also make it difficult to control and put constraints on the merger company (Stelzer, 2017).

Another danger posed when AT & T merge with warner brothers is the concentration of power. Already, this two companies have a lot of power and are also influential. Warner brothers owns Cnn, Hbo and other major companies. At & T owns direct TV Satellite Company. This two companies serve an estimated number of over 134million customers. This goes to demonstrate that the two companies should not join forces as it will give the companies too much power over TV and internet experiences and the merger will be able to eliminate any competition that competes with its content. They will make their channels more attractive and more available to consumers hence eliminating competition (Stelzer, 2017).

The new entity that will merge will not have any proper monitoring and assessment its activities. Combining the assets of AT &T and time warner’s content would lead to a strong incentive that would stifle its competitors from other willing content providers (Sullivan & Grimes, 2006).

The merger can be studied by looking into other similar cases. MA bell was vertically intergared.it had total control of the wires and the products that could be linked to the wires. Other independent competitor’s competitors who manufactured communication tools were affected naturally. The vertically integrated companies discouraged their consumers from using any wire not produced by their integrated partners. This example can also apply to the merger between at & t and warner brothers (Stelzer, 2017).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Meister, D &Wong, M. (2017). Dropbox Go-To-Market Sales Strategy. Ivey Publishing.

Stelzer, I. (2017).AT &T and the Danger of Vertical Integration. The Wall Street Journal.

Sullivan, L. A., & Grimes, W. S. (2006). The law of antitrust: An integrated handbook. St. Paul, Minn: Thomson/West.