Data Backup Digest

YouSendIt launched in 2004 and was a service that allowed users to send files that were too large to attach to an email. Of course, online services have advanced a whole lot in nearly a decade. The service has adapted with the times, becoming more of a cloud storage service than simply a file sharing tool. As such, YouSendIt has received a rebranding to Hightail.
Brad Garlinghouse, former AOL executive, took over YouSendIt a year ago. It was his passion to turn “a good company with a good product into something great”.
“Hightail is a new identity that represents the current breadth of our services, as well as everything we aspire to become. It also marks the fundamental changes that have happened at our company,” said Garlinghouse in a blog post on the company’s website. He went on to say that the new name stands out against a landscape of competitors full of “Boxes, Syncs and Shares”. He does have a point. Looking down the list of cloud storage providers – Dropbox, Box, SkyDrive, Drive, SugarSync – their names don’t particularly stand out.
“Hightail remains an easy and secure way to access and share files and folders on any device, anywhere, while fitting in with how you already work and giving you complete control of your valuable information,” reiterated Garlinghouse. “We have already far outgrown our original use case of only sending large files, and our name should reflect where we are as a company today as well as where we want to go in the future. We're renewing our commitment to helping our customers keep their ideas moving and - of course - making sure their life's work doesn't get dropped or stuck in a box,” he continued.
Along with the name change, the web, desktop and mobile experiences of the service have received a redesign. On top of that, there’s also a new pricing structure. Users can sign up for free and get 2 GB of storage and the ability to share files up to 50 MB. Alternatively, users can pay $9.99/£11.99 a month to get unlimited storage and be able to share files up to 2 Gb. On top of that, paying customers also get a Microsoft Outlook plugin and secure delivery (password protected, time limited and read-only file options, plus download tracking).
Hightail currently has over 43 million worldwide users and plans to introduce additional language support over the coming months. This rebranding is a strong push forward for the company and is an attempt to position the brand higher than other competitors in the ever growing cloud market.
Some users were annoyed that the name change wasn’t communicated to them before it happened, prompting confusion. There’s also the issue that Hightail means to flee as quickly as possible; is this really the sort of image that the company wants to project? YouSendIt was an established name and service and changing it after nine years of running is a risky move. It might pay off in the long run, but only time will tell.