Box.net now lunching its french version: a US startup expanding in France!

Box.net, a San Jose based startup, has recently announced the release of its new French version.
The three main uses of Box.net are to backup, share and access files from anywhere.
The company started to run in 2005, have now 500 BtoB clients (having each an average of 3to 10 user, a few have some hundreds)...
Box.net is a very good example of a pure startup, creating a new service, meeting then Google as main competitor, and on its way now to expand internationally...
I asked few questions to Alexandre Scialom, Stategic Marketing at Box.net...

- Could you tell us few words regarding Box.net international strategy? Can you give us some metrics?

Box.net is an online file storage and collaboration platform. It allows our 2.1 million registered users to put any kind of files (whether they are word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, pictures, videos) online "in the cloud"... They can then access their content from any computer or cell-phone, share it with specific people, and collaborate at work, school or home. Thanks to over 20 OpenBox Services, Box users also have access to an extensive set of specific functionality provided by our partners' services. For instance, they can edit documents and spreadsheet hosted on Box with Zoho, send fax with eFax, edit pictures with Picnik, send documents to Twitter, and more.

We manage more than 100 million files and serve 1 million files from our servers every day. In 2005, Box.net started as a consumer product and we learned how to design simple and efficient applications that anyone can use. Since the end of 2006, we also propose an offer specifically tailored for enterprises. We now have more than 500 Box Enterprise clients, a majority of them having between 3 and 10 users, and some of them up-to several thousand users.

Our service is currently used in more than 200 countries. We're going to use what we've learned through our experience in the US to accelerate the development of Box.net internationally. For instance, our affiliate program and our Box Enterprise reseller program will be made available to businesses who wish to distribute our application abroad. We're also talking to local internet actors to expand our base of partners that already encompasses companies such as Dell, Facebook, or Netvibes.

- Did the fact Google recently came in your market as direct competitor accelerate your international expansion?

Competition is very aggressive in the online storage market. New start-ups are created every month even though we recently saw Omnidrive, XDrive, and Mediamax, 3 companies that pioneered the industry, close their services. Microsoft recently entered the game too, but as far as I know Google doesn't offer an online storage service so far... Anyhow, we don't really intend to wait for them and we know we have to expand our business as fast as possible. Going international will help us towards that goal.

- Why choosing France as first localization? What are your objectives?

French-speaking users have been very actively asking us to translate the site in their language. Many of them also proposed to help us translate the site, and it was natural for us to fill their need. Today we have over 80,000 users in France, some of them using Box.net in the biggest French companies in the engineering, financial services, telecom, fashion, or advertising companies. Our goal is to make sure we put the right marketing and business development effort to continue extend our reach on the French market.

Thank you Alex, and all the best to Box.net in France and everywhere else!
Box.net and Dell has signed recently an online and storage collaboration deal: more here...

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Comments

[Ann]

Check out these online backup reviews:

http://www.backupreview.info/category/reviews/

http://www.backupreview.info/category/our-reviews/

[filip]

Hi Phil. Full disclosure here: I work for www.nomadesk.com, which offers small businesses (or nomadic professionals, as we like to call ourselves) an innovative way to share documents and work together on a “virtual fileserver.” I read your post on Box with great interest and just wanted to add NomaDesk to the mix.
Actually, NomaDesk comes with a feature set specifically geared toward the digital nomad, such as local encryption and “remote shredding” with TheftGuard. Of course, your files remain available off-line and we impose absolutely no limits on storage and bandwidth.
The upcoming NomaDesk release 2.6 will display file states and indicate whether files are already in use by someone else. You will also be able to add and review notes (i.e. meta-data).
Mac and Linux clients are soon to be released.

I would appreciate your review - in due time.

Thanks!

[a_A]

I use box.net for a fashion luxury brand France & Italy based and we appreciate it so much.