I’ve been following the blog of Xavier Casanova because he spends some time on analytics. His company, FAQ, it’s about private, direct, easy file-sharing, focusing on Windows first.
This feels like Slide, which is not without its own competitors already. And, following the thread, I find that there are plenty of others launching to try and re-create filesharing.
Broadly, I think this is a waste of time. A solution in search of an actual problem. File sharing is a form of communication, and these startups understand that, but I don’t imagine their networks (of people, not computers) have much chance of supplanting the large communities which exist already in the instant messenging world or (wait for it) e-mail.
It’s not enough to be better than e-mail (which isn’t easy). You also have to be easier and I fail to understand why any client software is going to solve this problem. If I want to share a photo, why wouldn’t I use one of the dozens of photo services already available? I know this isn’t about photos alone, or even video, which some of these startups are explicitly tackling. But since these teams are using the current popular media types to launch their services, I don’t recognize significant innovation.
I’m not being analytical or thoughtful about this reaction, I know. I just look at the spread of similar services, and I shake my head.