i-drive was a
file hosting service
A file-hosting service, cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet afte ...
that operated from 1998 to 2002.
The name derived from the words "Internet drive".
History
Based in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, the company was founded in 1998 with seed investors and launched its first product, an online file storage service in August 1999.
The idea originated from an early company
Jeff Bonforte co-founded in 1996 called ShellServer.net, which provided 10 MB of space for IRC users. Bonforte compiled the founding team, which included
Chris Lindland, Patrick Fenton, Tim Craycroft, Rich MacAlmon, John Reddig and Lou Perrelli (the last three were also the company's first angel investors). Originally presented as i-drive.com, the company acquired the domain idrive.com around October 1999. The initial product offered a limited amount of free file storage space, and later enhanced the offering with '
sideloading
Sideloading describes the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a personal computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader.
Sideloading ...
' – storing files such as
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
files collected on the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
without the need for the user to download them to their individual computer.
In January 2000, the company began offering unlimited storage space and an application called Filo.
In 2001 the company transitioned from offering the free storage service and transformed the underlying software architecture into a middleware storage mechanism and product, seeking to sell into various markets including the 3G marketplace, targeting companies such as DoCoMo and Earthlink.
In January 2002 the company name was changed to Anuvio Technologies.
i-drive's assets were acquired by the
EMC Corporation
Dell EMC (EMC Corporation until 2016) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud ...
in 2002. Certain assets (including the idrive.com domain name) were acquired by
Pro Softnet Corp which also offered online storage services. At its height, i-drive hosted over 10 million registered users, employed 110 people, and held partnerships with
MP3.com,
ZDnet.com
ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures.
The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.
Hist ...
, and 40 major universities. The service was rated as a "Top 5 Web Application" by
CNET
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
in 2000 and one of the "3 Top Technologies to Watch" by
Fortune Magazine
''Fortune'' is an American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, owned by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The ...
in 2000. The company raised over
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
30 million from
venture capitalist
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...
s such as
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...
, Information Technology Ventures, Global Retail Partners,
Hikari
may refer to:
Places
*Hikari Station, a station on Sanyō Main Line in Hikari, Yamaguchi
* Hikari, Chiba, a former town in Sousa District, Chiba, Japan
*Hikari, Yamaguchi, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
People
*Hikari (name), people and ...
(Japan),
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
(Netherlands), EMC, and
Partners Group
Partners Group Holding AG is a Swiss-based global private equity firm with US$127 billion in assets under management in private equity, private infrastructure, private real estate and private debt.
The firm manages a broad range of funds, struct ...
(Switzerland).
References
MP3.com and I-Drive.com Join Forces to Store and Manage MP3 Files
Online backup services
File hosting
Data synchronization
File sharing services
Cloud storage
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