Dropbox to unveil UK office and expand business aim

Further offices to be opened including in the UK to drive growth of Dropbox for Business

Cloud storage and file-sharing provider Dropbox is to open a UK office, according to a US report.

Richard Waters, reporting for the Financial Times from San Francisco, said the US-based firm is "embarking on a new phase of international expansion" - which he put down to an attempt to stay ahead of copycat rivals as well as focus more on paying business customers.

Dennis Woodside (pictured, right), chief operating officer at Dropbox, was quoted as saying that further offices will soon be opened in "other major European countries and Japan and Australia".

Dropbox announced an intention to open an office in Dublin to be its international headquarters back in 2012, with the office itself opening on Hatch Street, Dublin in January 2014.

It also has offices in Austin, Texas; Sydney, Australia; and New York, as well as its head office in San Francisco.

The file-sharing software has ratcheted up about 300m users, 70 per cent of whom are believed to reside outside the US.

But most are consumers who use its cloud storage and synchronisation as a convenience - and pay nothing for the privilege.

This is what is said to be behind its new approach to woo business customers.

According to the FT report, "putting people on the ground will make it possible to sell directly to local businesses and shape its service for local needs".

Dropbox for Business was launched last year and so far claims to have 80,000 subscribers.

There was no word from San Francisco of a look-in for the IT channel, which has as its bread and butter many of the smaller businesses Dropbox may well target in future.

However, major B2B players such as Microsoft, EMC and Citrix, as well as consumer behemoths like Apple, already have a stake in the cloud storage and file hosting market.

Dropbox's key advantage is its ease of use. Users can synchronise the storage of photo, document, and video files automatically across their smartphones, laptops and desktops, or share them with others.

The company was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, who continue to run the firm, and the service itself launched in 2008.