i-drive was a

file hosting service A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker, is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allow users to upload files that can be accessed o ...

that operated from 1998 to 2002. The name derived from the words "Internet drive".

History

Based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, 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 ty ...

' – 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 under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

files collected on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

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 EMC Corporation (stylized as EMC²) was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, which sold data storage device, data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud computing and other pro ...

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 MP3.com was a website operated by Paramount Global publishing tabloid-style news items about digital music and artists, songs, services, and technologies. It is better known for its original incarnation as a legal, free music-sharing service, ...

, ZDnet.com, and 40 major universities. The service was rated as a "Top 5 Web Application" by CNET in 2000 and one of the "3 Top Technologies to Watch" by

Fortune Magazine ''Fortune'' (stylized in all caps) is an American global business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a global business media company. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. T ...

in 2000. The company raised over

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

30 million from

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

s such as

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth continues to be managed by co-founder John Fisher and co-founders Mark Ba ...

, Information Technology Ventures, Global Retail Partners, Hikari (Japan),

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

(Netherlands), EMC, and

Partners Group Partners Group Holding AG is a Swiss-based global private equity firm with US$152 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 {{Web-software-stub