Will Facebook become one of the most profitable companies in the world? (opens in new tab)

Dropbox is a killer application if you have multiple computers or don't want to care about keeping backups. It's completely removed my need for flash drives, caring about which computer I have documents on, and so forth. I wouldn't underestimate that; I recall hearing that they've hit $100M/year in profits[1], and I expect that they've got quite a ways to grow. However, saying that they'll be the most profitable company in the world doesn't make sense to me - that would just take too much growth to be realistic.

For some context, the most profitable company in the world in 2010 was Gazprom[1], the largest exporter of natural gas in the world, with 24,555.7 million.

EDIT: Gazprom was the most profitable in 2009, not 2010, as pointed out below.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-revenue-2011-3

[2] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2010/perfor...

Oh absolutely. Dropbox is reaching the point where now my father and mother use it. It hasn't reached Facebook levels yet (by that I mean, my grandmother ;)), but it is getting there.

But with each incremental user, Dropbox's value increases in an e^x fashion.

For more on why I think so, here is a more detailed breakdown: http://marcgayle.com/how-dropbox-is-printing-money

There is no reason that Dropbox's growth will slow any time soon. It is a fabulous product, and has the referral system built-in.

It's the closest elixir to magic I have seen in recent times.

They've barely scratched the surface. And it's not just an ad network...

- virtual currency - daily deals - search integrated directly into the experience

and that's just off the top of my head