Wuala

Built end-to-end encrypted cloud storage before iCloud and Dropbox — Seagate acquired and shut it 6 years later to focus on hardware, while Dropbox grew to 500M users in the same period

Fatal mistake: Wuala built end-to-end encrypted cloud storage with P2P architecture (share unused disk space for cloud credits). Seagate/LaCie acquired for approximately $10M in 2009. LaCie featured Wuala alongside hardware. Dropbox grew from 1M to 500M users. Seagate decided to focus on hardware storage, not cloud services. Shut Wuala November 2015. Migrated users to LaCie's partner service.