Ok what about a much smaller plan then. Like 50GB for 5.99 per month. Then people who really need the 1TB will stay on it and they can make more off much less space.
It has been explained, many times, but people choose to either not read or simply ignore it. The smaller plans caused Dropbox to lose money. More people downgraded to a smaller plan than new people signing up. It wasn't cost effective.
Many of us DO understand the argument that a smaller plan would cause Dropbox loose money, because people might downgrade. But then it means that there is something wrong with the offering and a bit of creativity is needed.
Suggestion:It's actually quite easy to prevent downgrading, while at the same time attracting new "small-fee" customers who will eventually become "full-fee" customers. The trick isadded value to the normal $99 plan that is convincing for the already paying customers to stay, while the new "cheap" offer is too basic to even consider downgrading. And that added value SHOULD HAVE BEEN the smart-syncn, faster speed and maybe 1-2 other features. Be creative.
But instead.. Dropbox actually did create a new, added value (smart sync). But instead of using it for the trick discribed above, you want to charge almost double for smart-sync, while not even offering more space. I don't think people will queue for it with that price point. That was a wrong step in my oppinion.
So use smart sync as the hook: give it to the $99 people, and at the same time offer relatively low amount of space, slower upload for around $39 per year. And you will see, the already paying customers will stay at their $99 plan while you can attract those who are currently PUSHED to go away to iCloud Drive or Google Drive.
Please discuss this at a team meeting.
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I have been following this topic for quite a while - exactly for the same reasons. Me and my girlfriend WANT to become paying customers, but for a couple $200 per year is just a joke. So we decided to give our money to another company. I am also a small business owner, and I will introduce the other service in my startup instead of dropbox. (and I repeat, I did want to become a Dropbox customer, hence the effort to write this message)
Dropbox could create this "added value" (see my prev. post) by offering an app like Evernote. (I am aware of Dropbox Paper, but what I mean is a full-featured app) It will take time to make this happen but eventually cloud storage on its own may not be enough on the long run.
Does DropBox have any plans to compete with Google or Microsoft in the near future when it comes to smaller plans? For example, I need around 20GB, but with DropBox it would cost me 4 times more money than the others.
Superuser Mark said Dropbox tried plans smaller than 1 TB and lost money. This does not make sense because: - Technolgy has changed. Dropbox is a leader in technology. It should be able to devise a system where smaller plans add to its bottom line. Other cloud systems have done so.
- Customer conversion (going from a one-time users to a long-time user) are usually the highest cost in sales. Dropbox could add subscription-length discounts to its smaller plans, allowing big savings when someone signs up for say, three or five years.
- The public relations value of Dropbox instituting smaller-space plans would be enormous!