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Here is a note to all cloud storage startups. Please set your price before going into beta. Almost all the cloud based storage startups I have come across open their business to beta without even having any idea of what they are going to charge for their service in the future. I do understand that they need to go through the beta stage to figure out the challenges they face as a business. However, they are driving users crazy with their shoot first and think later strategy.
I have had this experience with many of the storage startups. In fact, only one among them, Sugarsync, was blunt in accepting the fact that they are clueless about their pricing. I was very frustrated when I heard about it. I stopped using Sugarsync till they actually came up with their pricing plan. Now, I am a happy customer. In fact, my experience with Dropbox, Syncplicity and others were also the same. Now, there is a new player is in town with the name Livedrive. Like Syncplicity, they are also offering unlimited storage right now in beta stage, without any information about how much they will charge in the future.
I know of many users who uploaded tons of data because Syncplicity offered unlimited storage for free. Once they started charging after the beta period, those users had to give up their data on Syncplicity either because they didn't want to pay for the storage or because they can't afford to pay the price due to the high currency conversion rates. I definitely do agree that storage startups have to pay their bills and hence they cannot offer it for free. I also agree that those users who lost their data on Syncplicity, when the service moved from free to paid plans, are the ones to be blamed. But it highlights a very important dilemma for users. In the absence of any word about the future pricing plans, users are hesitant to put their data on these storage startups, usually offering generous amounts of storage space. Why would anyone spend their valuable time uploading data into these services, only to find out at a later time that they cannot afford their pricing. It is a complete waste of people's time.
It is very important for these storage startups to do their math on pricing if they want the users to take them seriously. Seriously, no one wants to spend their time uploading data to find out that they cannot afford it or they do not want that pricing. It is not just a waste of user's time. With ISPs like Comcast limiting the bandwidth (and in some countries, people pay based on their bandwidth usage), it is also a case of losing money. This is my suggestion to all the future storage startups. Please announce your pricing information when you signup users for beta. Only then your company will be taken seriously.
I've seen a lot of this and it is truly a missed opportunity. Why wouldn't you not only tell users how valuable your "free" beta is but also use the opportunity to give special pricing to either a group limited by a number or a date? If you don't have buyers of your special offer before the go live date - you have to ask what you are missing.
[..] Krish wrote in December about the importance for startups to do the math early andpublish their pricing: [..]
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