Over 50 million people currently use Dropbox, and the service is adding users at a rate of 150,000 a week.
But its not just viral growth, word of mouth growth, smart branding, and effective marketing.
Thats a little strange to modern ears, because in some sense its reminiscent of the bad old days of crapware: dozens of annoying pre installed apps on new PCs, placed there simply because a software publisher paid the manufacturer.
Why do we need preloads in this age of virality and social media marketing.
His answer was both surprising and informative, and made us reconsider some of our opinions on mobile user acquisition.
Fjeldsoe Nielsen lets just call him Lars, shall we told us that he had to fight internally at Dropbox to even open the topic with carriers and manufacturers.
Source: DropboxDropbox is included in Samsung Galaxy 3S onboardingBut Lars persisted, wanting to super charge user growth acceleration.
And the way he did it has added not just phantom users but actual real live recurring users: the holy grail of a freemium service.
For example, a carrier in the UK highlights Dropbox integration in its in store displays as one of the key reasons why customers should select its phones.
Most non tech savvy users dont know how to install apps on their phones and never will.
Photos taken are automatically uploaded to Dropbox, and synced to users desktop computers.
One of the biggest problems is getting your content off all your digital devices, Lars said in a Mobilebeat 2012 session earlier yesterday.
So, as users are setting up their Android device with a Google identity, Dropbox set up is right there in the middle.
If consumers are prior Dropbox users, Dropbox starts syncing their content to the device immediately giving users an instant reward for signing in.
In addition and this is part of the value proposition to partners as well as end users users get a free 50 GB Dropbox account for two years, simply for signing in.
We asked app developer Bryan Kennedy, chief technology officer at Sincerely, about this user acquisition strategy.
Referencing his mother (for whom he is chief tech supporter and app installer) he said it was a smart way to access parts of the market:Source: DropboxIn store marketing with VodafoneMost non tech savvy users dont know how to install apps on their phones and never will.
And its working for Dropbox, in spite of some pain, says Lars:Working with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) can be a pain but if you do it right its definitely worthwhile.
Dropbox has deals with both carriers and phone manufacturers, included Samsung, of course, HTC, ZTE (a Chinese white label manufacturer of Android based phones, Vodafone, T Mobile, and others.
Carli Saunders is a business journalist based in Sydney, Australia. Carli has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Carli spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
