Affiliation

How they do it: As a user of Dropbox’ file hosting service, customers can earn additional hosting space by inviting friends to use the service as well.

Digitization

How they do it: For consumers, Dropbox made owning a local, physical harddrive for file storage and backup obsolete. The data storage capacity offered by Dropbox’s Cloud replaces the traditional paradigm of saving files on a system in customer’s offices or homes.

Freemium

How they do it: A basic version with limited hosting space is offered to customers for free. However, customers then have the chance to purchase subscriptions for larger amounts of storage space.

Guaranteed Availability

How they do it: Dropbox file hosting service is available 24/7, allowing customers to access their files anytime and from anywhere.

Lock-in

How they do it: The more files customers have saved on their Dropbox’ file hosting space and the more devices are linked to it or the more users the space is shared with, the more effort it is to switch to another service.

Peer-to-peer

How they do it: Dropbox offers to share file hosting space and individual files with other users. This service includes the option to collaboratively work on files at the same time.

Rent Instead Of Buy

How they do it: Dropbox file hosting space is not owned by the customer, but he can utilize it to store his files online. This eliminates the need for a physical hard drive.

Subscription

How they do it: Customers who are in need of larger amount of file hosting space, can upgrade their capacity by booking monthly or annual subscription. The more space they require the higher is the price for the subscription.

Virtualization

How they do it: Dropbox is a well-known name today. By applying the virtualization pattern to physical digital storage, it was one of the first cloud storage providers to facilitate data exchange when cell phones and computers are connected to the Internet.