Source: http://www.wired.com/2014/07/why-dropbox...

Hot startups don’t often stake their reputation for innovation on how well their technology works with Microsoft Office, but that’s exactly what Dropbox is doing today. The file-syncing service, one of the most valuable venture-backed private companies on the planet, is rolling out several Office-related features for businesses, including full-text search of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, among other file types, and the ability for multiple users to simultaneously edit Office documents via Dropbox.

While Office itself stopped being synonymous with “cutting edge” sometime before the turn of the century, Dropbox’s attention to Microsoft’s flagship productivity software speaks to a deeper truth: People still use Office. Lots of people. And that reality, in turn, speaks to Dropbox’s strategy for distinguishing itself in the (over)crowded field of cloud-based file storage, syncing, and sharing. While some competitors are banking on providing the most gigabytes for the least dollars, Dropbox is devoting itself to services that make those files more useful.

“Right now our focus is on slotting into people’s basic workflow and making that really good,” Ilya Fushman, head of the company’s Dropbox for Business product.