Software Graveyard
Symantec, the place where software goes to die.....
Symantec has stealthily purchased the online storage firm SwapDrive, slipping a reported $123m into the startup's pocket to flesh-out the consumer side of Symantec's web services. Both companies have been pretty quiet about the deal — but an insider source to TechCrunch cites the noteworthy figure Symantec was willing to pay …
I think Symantec is right. A real business is hardly built on top of free service, unless you can find other ways to monetize your free service. In the online backup business, you cannot really use advertisement revenue to offset it.
When reading the news, I tend not to believe they have $13 million in profit, the amount of revenue is already very impressive. This makes a lot of other small companies feel shy. In this business, most companies are money-losing: just think about some companies offering 2GB to 50GB free storage, or charging only $50/year for unlimited storage… while the storage price is going down, operating a backup service is not the same as using some raw cheap hard disks. We are not sure how the free / cheap service providers can survive without a buyout by some big old industry giant. From that point of view, SwapDrive has been doing really great in business.
DriveHQ.com is another independently-operated major Online Storage and Online Backup service provider.
Like SwapDrive, DriveHQ has Online Storage and Sharing service based on the DriveHQ.com website, FTP and DriveHQ FileManager client software; and we also have business-class Online Backup service using DriveHQ Online Backup enterprise edition.
Unlike many other companies, DriveHQ is not funded by VCs. We have spent many years developing top-notch products and technologies. We make money by offering top-quality products and services to our customers and creating value for them. We offer customized services to small and big companies. Our service has powered from big telecom service providers to small accounting firms, etc. While we look forward to having some good luck, our business focus has always been to create value for our customers and stay profitable. At end of the day, we believe if online storage and online backup is really important for customers, they will pay for it at a good price.
John
http://www.drivehq.com