This is just a file sync. A good one. But 1500 employees for that? This goes way beyond my imagination.
https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-ama...
That is just a portion of their infrastructure engineering activity. They also have product engineering - frontends, backends, mobile clients, integrations, etc.
It's not just a server under some college kid's desk.
This part really was highlighted to me when I contacted support over a bug. They linked me to an introduction to Dropbox which was kind of offensive since I've been a user for 8 years and they completely ignored the bug report it seems :-(
I guess it hadn't registered in my brain that a company with as many users as they do has customer service not unlike a larger Acme Co. tech support desk.
It is overkill!
Where else would they be?
Presumably relatively few of those people are really technical. The rest would be handling DMCA requests, support calls, enterprise sales, etc.
Still seems like a lot of people. I think that a lot of the time, middle management argue for hiring staff because having lots of reports gives you credibility -> seniority -> more money. Sure, it reduces profits, but if the majority of your remuneration is salary then that doesn't matter.
Anecdotal, but everyone I know who uses Dropbox is an engineer or engineering organization who has a healthy distrust of salesdrones.