Dropbox, Google, and ... Coopetition ?!?

Some years back we coined—at least we believe we coined—the word coopetition. It’s one of those simple/not simple ideas; coopetition is both competing and cooperating with the same people.

In the Internet age coopetition has become more and more common. But “the big guys” aren’t coopetition fans because—well, because they’re the big guys. So imagine my surprise when Google and Dropbox started working together. That’s right; it’s time for Dropbox Google Coopetition.

Parts of the idea of Dropbox Google Coopetition are kind of mind-boggling. Again, this is a matter of big guys working together even as they try to beat each others’ brains in—in a really competitive space. What’s next, iTunes working with Google Play Music?

Probably not, if only for the copyright problems that would bring up. But making file storage compatible makes sense. Even though Dropbox, Google, and many others would like to sell you cloud storage, it’s becoming harder every day to keep everything in one place and sorting through it all is harder still.

Dropbox Google Coopetition

The competitive angle in storage is separate from one reality; you can’t always control where your files are stored

Coopetition in the cloud storage space is about that issue. The competitive angle in storage is separate from one reality; you can’t always control where your files are stored.

Consolidation through a dashboard seems like a great idea but having tried a few examples of that I’m not going to bother mentioning any by name

There are services that try to get around that problem. Consolidation through a dashboard seems like a great idea but having tried a few examples of that I’m not going to bother mentioning any by name; none that I’ve seen are good enough. So Google, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and any other players that are serious about cloud storage are smart—for now—to play the coopetition game. Dropbox Google coopetition looks pretty smart when you think about it that way, doesn’t it?

Dealing with ideas like coopetition and when engaging in them makes sense is our specialty here. Thinking you could use a hand digging through that mess? Say “hi”, here.