As investor sentiment toward ”unicorns” has turned over the past few months, Dropbox has been besieged with questions about everything from its $10 billion valuation to the viability of its business.
On Monday, the company sought to rebut skeptics, saying its growth trajectory remains as strong as ever.
Speaking at the FORBES CIO Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Dennis Woodside, the chief operating officer, said Dropbox now has 500 million users, up from 400 million in June of last year.
“We are continuing the scaling of the business across both consumer and enterprise,” Woodside told FORBES in an interview.
Woodside did not release new figures for users of Dropbox for Business, the company’s paid product aimed at business customers, but said that about 25,000 new businesses sign up in a typical quarter, and that the rate of adoption is accelerating. In November, the company said it had 150,000 DFB customers.
The product is used by small and large businesses alike, and Woodside said growth among large customers was particularly strong. In all, Dropbox is being used in 8 million business, he said. The figure includes paying customers as well as those who use the free product.
Woodside also said Dropbox now has 3.3 billion sharing connections — the number of shared links and folders — up 50% from a year ago. He said Dropbox continues to spread virally, with 44% of new users coming through another user.
While most private tech companies have faced questions in recent months, few have faced sharper skepticism than Dropbox. That’s in part because rival Box has seen its value cut nearly in half since its January 2015 IPO. Its current market cap is just $1.5 billion.
Dropbox, whose last fundraising round valued it at $10 billion, is believed to be worth much less today. Mutual funds investors in the company have recently marked down the value Dropbox shares by about 50%.
But the company has insisted that its hybrid model, which depends on both consumers and business customers, remains healthy.
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Source: Forbes