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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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box-logo-250x151.jpg
Online storage company Box has secretly filed for an IPO, according to Quartz and the Wall Street Journal. Box last year raised $100 million in venture funding and is valued at approximately $2 billion. An IPO could bring an additional $500 million to the company during a time when competition between rival Dropbox is intensifying.

Box is reportedly taking advantage of a provision in the JOBS Act, which allows companies with an annual revenue of less than $1 billion to file its IPO prospectus confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A Box spokesperson declined to comment on the possibility of an IPO.
"We don't have anything to share at this time. We're focused on continuing to build our business and expand our customer relationships globally," a Box spokesman told Quartz in an emailed statement.
Box recently overhauled its iOS app [App Store] and boosted the capacity of its free storage plan for a limited time. Users who download the app between January 15 and February 15, 2014 will receive free 50 GB of online storage for the life of their accounts.

Article Link: Web Storage Company Box Secretly Files for IPO
 

applesith

macrumors 68030
Jun 11, 2007
2,775
1,570
Manhattan
This can be part of why they ran the recent promotion where anyone downloading their redesigned app got a free upgrade to 50GB. Get those users.
 

darkslide29

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2011
1,860
886
San Francisco, California
I can only imagine the number of users they have signed up, thanks to their constant free 50gb promo. Those millions of users that flock to the promo look attractive to investors. I know that's why I have signed up (over a year ago, the same 50gb promo!) but I never actually use it. So I don't expect this to go well long term.
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,545
6,042
I really like Dropbox and it's already set up on all my devices (not that it takes long to set up...)

What does this company think they offer than their dozens of competitors don't?

Edit: read an article on them. Their focus seems to be on collaboration, so they're more of a competitor to iWork in iCloud or Google Drive than Dropbox.

I wonder if they allow for some kind of remote peer programming... I've been looking for something to facilitate that...
 
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iJon

macrumors 604
Feb 7, 2002
6,586
229
I really like Dropbox and it's already set up on all my devices (not that it takes long to set up...)

What does this company think they offer than their dozens of competitors don't?

Edit: read an article on them. Their focus seems to be on collaboration, so they're more of a competitor to iWork in iCloud or Google Drive than Dropbox.

I wonder if they allow for some kind of remote peer programming... I've been looking for something to facilitate that...

As someone who sells both Dropbox for Business and Box, the differences are very clear. Box focuses on the enterprise market where Dropbox focuses more on consumers. Box has many more features that cater to that market.

Dropbox has one feature though that no one else does, and that's LAN sync which I love and can make Box a deal breaker sometimes.
 

TXCherokee

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2012
338
180
50gb!!

Since I'm more of a user that just needs to store some PDFs I signed up. I had to constantly add or delete things off of Dropbox because of the 5GB limit. UI on iphone is nice too.
 

DaveTheRave

macrumors 6502a
May 22, 2003
782
368
If anyone cares you can link your Box account to IFTTT and automate some stuff: https://ifttt.com/box
 

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
I can only imagine the number of users they have signed up, thanks to their constant free 50gb promo. Those millions of users that flock to the promo look attractive to investors. I know that's why I have signed up (over a year ago, the same 50gb promo!) but I never actually use it. So I don't expect this to go well long term.

#of users only looks attractive to investors if the company can monetize them, either w/ pay sub, pushing ads, to get people to buy compatible products like MS does w/ SkyDrive. Freeloader user are nothing but a drag on earnings, & not what investors want to see. I have not read BOX's prospectus -- do they have a plan to monetize free users? Or do they just hope they'll eventually upgrade to a larger plan?
 

derek4484

macrumors 6502
Apr 29, 2010
363
148
Box has done these 50GB promos before. About two years ago when I had a HTC Rezound, they had a promo going where if you sign up through the Android app you get 50GB. So, I've been using them ever since. 50GB certainly beats the 2GB from Dropbox. Plus they have document collaboration and document editing tools.
 

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
Since I'm more of a user that just needs to store some PDFs I signed up. I had to constantly add or delete things off of Dropbox because of the 5GB limit. UI on iphone is nice too.

This may/may not apply to you, but it won't let you upload files (e.g., PDFs) larger than 250 MB on the Free plan (I have a few 1000+ page textbooks). Google Drive has at least 10-15 GB of space and you can upload files up to 10 GB in size (last time I checked). You may be able to do similar things in Mega but tagyro would know more about that ;) (on mobile now).

Disregard this if this doesn't apply to you. :p

----------

If anyone cares you can link your Box account to IFTTT and automate some stuff: https://ifttt.com/box

Box's integration with other apps and services actually looks fairly promising. I'll have to check that one out, thanks!
 

KylePowers

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2011
1,688
197
I use both Box and Dropbox. I have 50GB with Box and ~26GB with Dropbox. I just keep my Dropbox folder inside my Box folder for double syncing/backup action :p
 

Razeus

macrumors 603
Jul 11, 2008
5,348
2,030
Dropbox really needs to do something about their pricing.

I won't be renewing my sub with them. I have so much cloud storage available to me (200GB) from various companies, that it's pointless to keep paying.

The point of me paying for Dropbox was to have everything in one folder/one company, but their price per GB ratio has got out of hand.

I've I were going to pay, I probably just use Copy.com as they give you 2.5x the space for the same price as Dropbox.
 

Paul7

macrumors newbie
Jan 19, 2009
20
0
Box does not work well with Macs

I've been trying out Box with the Mac for the past few days and it has been horrible. It makes you realize just how hard sync must be.

For one thing, Box does not support packaged files (eg. Pages, Numbers, Aperture, iPhoto, etc.), which is pretty basic file type to the Mac and has been around for years (conversely, Dropbox supports such formats).

Box also does not sync very well. I keep getting Sync errors, which I've never had before with Dropbox (in over 2 years!). And it wasn't because of the files, as they were the same files I synced (successfully) with Dropbox. (I just moved the files over)

Their iOS app also doesn't support the iWork files, (eg. Pages, Numbers, Keynote) even though such functionality is built into the iPad/iPhone, etc.

I would avoid Box if at all possible, especially if you are a Mac user. Stick with Dropbox which has been rock solid reliable. In the end, you get what you pay for, which is the why we all bought a Mac in the first place!
 

69650

Suspended
Mar 23, 2006
3,367
1,876
England
Shouldn't an IPO be public by its very definition. It's a "public offering". What's the point in keeping it secret unless you have something to hide.
 

JuicyJones

macrumors member
Mar 20, 2011
92
131
Copy

I did away with DropBox and got Copy a few months back. I really like it. It's encrypted, has no file size limits, and has some cool sharing features.
 
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dontcallmedaz

macrumors newbie
Jun 24, 2013
9
0
I'm staying loyal to Dropbox still for the convenience, that and a healthy amount of SkyDrive space for non critical stuff is sufficient at the moment.

Would be nice to be able to get additional space on Dropbox without paying through the roof for it though. Hopeful the competition will lead to better deals and I can consolidate everything in one place.
 
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Carlanga

macrumors 604
Nov 5, 2009
7,132
1,409
Thanks MR

I orig got 50GB for when I bought my hp touchpad but never really used the app

I just downloaded and signed in using my iPhone and my account shows:
Max File Size: 5GB
Storage Quota: 100GB. :eek:
CRAzY size.
 

dlondon

macrumors 6502
Sep 6, 2013
409
325
I mainly use Dropbox but I have several cloud services available (including Box). None of them do what I want them to do though. I'd like it to mirror a drive on my computer (like Dropbox does) but I'd also like to have files that are only in the cloud (so I can free up space on my MacBook pro). Perhaps drop files into a folder to be uploaded but then deleted from the hard drive afterwards. I'm fed up with keeping various older files on removable drives which means I haven't always got access plus my files end up all over the place.

I either need to do the above or to remove my 300GB+ music library (but again, that either means managing files in multiple locations or not having access to files without a removable drive connected). Oh the joys of the digital era. :rolleyes:
 
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