by Kimberly Losenara
From my user survey, participants benefit from cloud storage services and apps in their daily and weekly lives, for both personal and work purposes. Many people cite convenience, accessibility, and ease of use as the top reasons they like to use the cloud. It's standard for cloud storage services to offer limited space for free, so many people choose not to pay for a cloud service, even if they do want more storage space. From the ones who are willing to pay for it, the range was between $5-10 max per month, given that functionality continually improves.
It was insightful to see that a majority of participants use more than one cloud service (the most popular being Google Drive and Dropbox). It seems the main factor that guides peoples' choice over the other cloud services and apps were what was already built into the phones, email service, and other digital products they already use. For example, most people use G-Suite because they already use Gmail or own an Android phone. It seems that instead of comparing options and choosing one, it's easier to adopt new services based on how they sell their cloud storage. Although the market is saturated, cloud storage is still fairly new to the general public. This could explain why participants are still open to new features like collaboration, video/image-editing, and in-app messaging.
The demographics of the survey participants were:
The two most popular services or apps used amongst participants were Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, however Google Drive is the one primarily used.
Top reasons Google Drive is used: