Data Backup Digest

While cloud-based storage is in the midst of its biggest boom ever, those that specialize in cloud services are able to capitalize on recent trends and cash in on the great cloud rush. Nowhere is this more evident that in the recent startup of Hive.im, which has only just emerged from its beta testing phase. Despite its status as a rookie contender against providers like Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and more, Hive.im managed to raise $500,000 in initial seed funding from various investors, including Bigcolors and Link11 GmbH.

Since Hive.im already has offices established in Croatia and Hong Kong, the newly secured funding will be used to develop a U.S.-based team with a brand new office located in San Francisco. Leftover funds will be allocated toward platform scaling and building new partnerships within the IT industry, which is expected to bolster the development of Hive.im's mobile technology.

Although Hive.im is available to users for free, there are charges associated with additional, or otherwise premium, services. Such paid functionality includes unlimited download and streaming bandwidth as well as access to accelerated video streams and greater streaming music quality, though users can take advantage of the site's primary features without having to pay anything at all.

The main purpose of Hive.im, as described by company co-founder Thierry Lehartel in a recent interview, is to fill in the gaps between cloud-based backup, online file sharing and network security. Because most of Hive.im's competitors maintain a primary focus on backup, according to Lehartel, his service is more oriented toward file sharing and accessibility.

“If you have data in the cloud, obviously you have two main purposes. One is preservation, the insurance and security aspect, and you have cloud storage providers that do that well. The trade-off is sharing, which has not been done very well. It’s very utilitarian. We saw that as a gap,” Thierry Lehartel, co-founder and one of the primary figureheads with Hive.im, explained in a recent interview. “There is still not an easy tool. With family and friends, I was still using email or social platforms like Facebook to share files, but the issue with email is that it is harder to manage, while social networks are noisy.”

Hive.im refused to release any information on how many users they've already attained, but they are targeting markets located throughout the United States, the Asia-Pacific territory and within Latin American countries. Representatives with Hive.im have said that their numbers increase on a regular and consistent basis. Exact numbers are expected to be released upon the completion and launch of Hive.im's mobile service, which will be available for both Android and iOS users.

For more information regarding Hive.im, interested parties can visit their website at www.hive.im. Here you have unlimited accessibility to their dedicated web app, which is beyond its beta stages at this point. This gives users a great opportunity to try out the service while it is still in its infancy in order to determine whether or not it fits their file sharing, backup and security needs.