Dropbox’s two-sided referral rewards
App & software · 2008 · Notable
Extra storage rewarded both the person inviting a friend and the new user.
Spread Score
How it worksNumbers
- Direct referral invitations
- 2.8M
- Trailing 30 days · Apr 2010 · Founder slide · Self-reported · Drew Houston
- Milestone date
- Apr 2010
- Sep 11 ’08 to Apr 2010
- Platforms
- 1
- Started on Open web
- Origin
- Seeded
- Technology
How it spread
Trace the originDropbox rewarded invitations with extra storage for both participants. In April 2010, Drew Houston reported 2.8 million direct invitations in a trailing 30-day window and attributed 35% of daily signups to the referral program.
Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
4 more events on this chart
Join free to see themTimeline (7)
September 2008
Dropbox seed · Sep 11 ’08
Dropbox became publicly available after its TechCrunch50 launch.[1]
October 2009
Dropbox / Common Craft owner response · Oct 2 ’09
Reported two million users; its referral landing page featured a Common Craft explainer for new users.[2]
April 2010
Dropbox milestone · Apr 2010
Houston reported 2.8 million direct referral invitations in a trailing 30-day April reporting window.[3]
Spread the same way
New cases, every week
How the next thing spread, the week it does.



