Cloudup is a clear and fast file-sharing service for files, videos, links, music, documents, code, text, and so on, which is both user-friendly and recipient-friendly.
Drag.
Drop.
Stream.
“We created Cloudup because we were disappointed with sharing services that took too much time for conversion, storage, management, and uploading — we just wanted to share anything, anytime.” — CloudUp team.
In this part, I want to talk about the history and reasons for creating the service and what came out of it.
Reasons
The LearnBoost educational platform, Guillermo Rauch’s first startup, had already become popular and secured its place in the market by this time. It was a simple, convenient and fast service that solved all problems related to education. However, the interests and needs of teachers did not end there — they wanted to share their work, publish lesson plans, share photos from lessons in blogs, and talk about their work on social networks.
The LearnBoost development team also shared a large amount of information — images, videos, documents, presentations — for personal or work purposes. Different tools were used for each task.
LearnBoost users needed a tool that would allow them to share files with all network users. In existing solutions, you had to log in to view the file. Another disadvantage was the lack of cross-browser compatibility.
CloudUp Video Presentation — https://cloudup.com/cYiu8eWgvxt
Competition
CloudUp was not the first to enter the market in this area. By that time, there were already startups in the data storage sphere (WeTransfers and YouSendIts), big players (Google Drive and Dropbox), and even social networks (Facebook, Twitter) were quite good at this task. Nevertheless, the goal of CloudUp was slightly different — not just to store files, but also to share them. But there were competitors at that time also — DropLr, CloudApp, Ge.tt.
The most advanced service at that time was Dropbox, but its main task was (and remains to this day) data storage, not file sharing and distribution.
On June 20, 2013, Guillermo and Tian Lu announced the creation of a new file-sharing service — CloudUp. From the LearnBoost team, TJ, Meredith, and Nathan also participated in the development of cloudup.
Tasks
The main goal was to make the sharing of images, links, videos, code, documents, and everything else — simple and beautiful, both for service users and for those with whom these users share.
To do this, the following tasks needed to be solved:
- Cross-browser compatibility The service should be accessible from any device, with any OS and from any browser. The problem of video format support added complexity.
- Grouping It was necessary to save files not in one endless list, but to make it possible to group them into categories.
- Viewing without registration To simply view photos, it was not necessary to register on the service. As viewing is possible without registration, functionality for secure file sharing was needed.
- Editing It was necessary to edit, change, delete or hide already uploaded files.
- Speed For viewing files and videos, it was not necessary to wait for their full upload.
Functionality
Drag. Drop. Stream. Three simple steps for files to take a huge path from the user’s device to viewers.
The service absorbed all the experience accumulated by the team, was built on modern technologies (many of which were created and developed by the LearnBoost team itself), a minimalist design was created for it. But this was not enough to stand out among the existing giants and become a market leader. The service needed to stand out, improve all existing solutions, and create new ones.
Cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility
Google Chrome only surpassed IE in popularity in 2012. By the time of the CloudUp launch (June 2013), cross-browser compatibility was a big and important task. In addition to directly supporting all browsers, the service also solved the problem of file format support. The service converted documents into PDF, performed video transcoding, and compressed images for devices with weak internet connections.
Grouping and preview
Existing alternatives displayed folders in a “list” format, CloudUp did so in a “tile” format and called this not folders, but streams. Streams differed from folders not only in their display style but also in their content.
In the “folders” of competitors, files were stored as a list, with basic icons. Streams, on the other hand, contained tiles with files that allowed you to see all the content in preview mode, be it a document, photo, file, or video. Thus, in these streams, you could easily and quickly find the necessary files. This worked with a really long list of files, whether they were simple documents, raw photos, or even psd, eps, and AI files, preview was available for everything.
Also, directly from the service, you could view the meta-information about the file, such as weight, extension, creation date, resolution, and much more.
Editing and security
Each stream was assigned a unique identifier that could not be forged or predicted, so the only way to view a specific stream was to get a link. For additional stream protection, it could be password-protected.
At any time, the file could be edited, replaced, password added or removed, or deleted.
Speed
One of the main features of LearnBoost was real-time operation. The company that created the first library for these purposes — socket.io was a leader in this area. The next startup was no exception, all files were uploaded and available in real time. As soon as the user started uploading files, a link would be immediately available to him, which he could share with his friends. The upload did not occur as a whole file, but as a stream, which was a significant advantage, primarily for video.
Also, the product followed the ideas of web 2.0, that is, it was a single-page application. https://cloudup.com/blog/the-need-for-speed
Application
Along with the presentation of the service, an application for it was immediately presented. Initially only for OSX, but in the near future, apps for other platforms were planned.
In addition to the main functionality, the application could also:
- Automatically upload all screenshots taken to the service;
- Upload by transferring the necessary files to the CloudUp icon in the status bar. The link to the created stream was immediately copied to the clipboard and it could be immediately shared with friends or colleagues.
And these promises were kept. Almost immediately after the launch, a Windows application was presented.
The application could also track screenshots and automatically upload them.
Result
On June 20, 2013, the service launched pre-registration. The service offered users 1000 files up to 200MB each for free. In early September, the service launched in beta testing and sent out 10,000 invitations. In just a few weeks, users uploaded over 300,000 files, the total volume of which was almost 1,500 GB.
CloudUp quickly and confidently entered the market for cloud solutions, but to secure a strong position in it, the team had to do a lot of work. The service had a huge and unique functionality, which favorably distinguished it from competitors, but this was not enough for establishment. The next step was to consider monetization.
The free tariff provided for the upload of up to 1000 files, which was enough for an ordinary user. For business, special tariffs, applications for all platforms, and collaborative work on files in real time were needed. The company continuously improved its applications, the performance of the service, supported file formats, thereby gradually closing all market needs.
The first company to fully switch to CloudUp for internal purposes was The Lift, on August 12, 2013 (one and a half months later). theLift was engaged in product development from concept to product, from software development to the creation of marketing materials. The company’s headquarters were located in Southern California, and there was also an office in Buenos Aires.
The second company was Sawhorse. Sawhorse is a full-service production company helping startups and large companies share their stories through video and post-production campaigns. This, perhaps, was the first company well familiar with the product and the team, as they made the introductory video for CloudUp.
Also, CloudUp launched a “scaling program” — a referral program, so that users could invite their friends to the service.