X
Innovation

Dropbox winning over one in two Australian internet users

Dropbox has said there are now more than 10 million registered users and 11,000 registered business teams in Australia using the file hosting service.
Written by Aimee Chanthadavong, Contributor

Dropbox has announced that since opening its Australian headquarters back in 2014, it has accumulated more than 10 million registered Australian users, which means approximately one in two internet users in Australia are now using the file hosting service.

The San Francisco-based firm added that it has 11,000 registered business teams in Australia.

Dropbox ANZ country manager Charlie Wood attributed the growth to date to the company's investment in its growing product portfolio from being just consumer-facing to targeting the enterprise market.

In further efforts to bolster its portfolio, Dropbox announced a range of new features, which it touts has been designed to improve user productivity and improve workflow for large teams working together.

Some of these new features include the ability to scan documents directly into the Dropbox mobile app, and using the scanned information to create a PDF file. Users will also have the ability to search inside the scanned documents.

For businesses, Dropbox has added the ability to share files with view-only permissions -- a feature previously limited to the folder level. There's also new version history, which Dropbox said gives users the ability to rewind all versions of a saved file to track and monitor changes.

Wood highlighted an advantage of having infinite versions of a document, which he pointed out has been particularly welcomed by the Australian retail environment, is that it can be used to mitigate risk such as cryptovirus.

Dropbox has previously been slammed twice by whistleblower Edward Snowden for privacy, calling the company "hostile to privacy" and advising for users to "get rid" of it. In response, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said although users could do more to encrypt their data, it's a "trade-off between usability, convenience, and security," saying that the company offers people "choice".

In addition, Wood added that the company's ability to forge partnerships with companies such as Vodafone and Diverse City Careers has also boosted its local presence.

Under the partnership with Vodafone, both companies have previously said the collaboration will allow them to make a play for Australia's estimated AU$774 million cloud applications market.

Meanwhile, last August, Dropbox and cloud accounting firm Xero launched the integration of Dropbox for Business with Xero's Tax product in an attempt to remove the administrative burden of sharing files and folders for small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers.

The company has also built API integrations with other cloud platform providers including Adobe and Microsoft.

Editorial standards