There are huge network effects at play with youtube. People discover new content (related videos) as they browse the site.
With Dropbox, it seems, to me, like there are much fewer network effects at play. I don't know what percentage of activity on Dropbox involves sharing between Dropbox customers, but I'd guess its low?
I also think its a big deal that I already sign into my Google account on every computer I use; if my files are just going to be there, with my docs, mail and calendar, I'm probably not going to use another service.
I don't know, that's one of the biggest benefits of Dropbox, I tell someone I'll add a shared drive and 9 times out of ten they already have a Dropbox account (in my tech world bubble at least)
Yeah, but some folks have come to the same conclusion as jacquesm ( above ) and use the big G as little as possible.
Sure, I have a google account. I almost never use it.
For me, the epiphany came when my adsense account was suspended years ago. For what I never found out. I appealed and was reinstated. I then pulled adsense from every site. Lesson learned, and I don't need to learn it again.
Presumably there is some software to be installed as well, but yeah I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the press releases of 170 million Google Drive users come out!
I'd suspect that there's a reasonable network effect; I've used Dropbox as a group fileshare with three separate groups of people, and each time, new people signed up for Dropbox in order to participate. Their referral program is especially well-designed, too.
With Dropbox, it seems, to me, like there are much fewer network effects at play. I don't know what percentage of activity on Dropbox involves sharing between Dropbox customers, but I'd guess its low?
I also think its a big deal that I already sign into my Google account on every computer I use; if my files are just going to be there, with my docs, mail and calendar, I'm probably not going to use another service.