They can predict a lot of things. But in the B2B market, they are competing with much larger companies that can offer the same amount of storage plus a lot more - Google and Microsoft.
In the consumer market, they are competing with Google, Microsoft, and Apple.
Would you really want to compete against the three most valuable companies in the US where as Steve Jobs said “you’re not a product you’re a feature”?
This is the kind of dismissal people make when there's nothing left of substance to criticize about a company. But it's an empty dismissal - see my comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17548438
Would you also say the same about Uber? Neither company has proven that there is a demand for their product once they set a price where they can make a profit.
While on a GAAP basis, Dropbox is losing money, the company generated $0.18 of non-GAAP earnings per share in 2017, an incredible feat for a software business of their size and growth.
Their GAAP operating margin was (10)% in 2017, but the non-GAAP margin was 5%. Their free cash flow margin has been improving dramatically over the past few years, and was at 28% in 2017, up from 16% in 2016 and (11)% in 2015. [1]
I wouldn't say the same thing about Uber, because they seem to have a negative operating margin, unlike Dropbox.
This is the whole point. Anyone can look at the final result and sneer "unprofitable", but it's meaningless without actually looking at the figures and understanding what their cashflows are.
Losses last three years are: ~300m, ~200m, ~100m.
They are going to be profitable by 2020 and their margin is growing, so I don't get this negativity.