The Yun.io app for Android, uploading into the cloud.
This year, after a hesitant start, cloud-based services and cloud syncing tech have finally hit China in great numbers. And now one new China-based startup has created perhaps the most cute-looking and thoughtfully designed of these – Yun.io, which is a cross-platform syncing service that’s free for consumers who don’t need any more than 5-gigabytes of storage.
Yun.io has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux on the desktop side (plus its web app), and an Android app that’ll soon be joined by an iPhone version as well. As with the American services that first got people into cloud storage, Yun.io offers extra storage at a premium, starting at 205 RMB (US$32) per year. But most people could easily, say, backup all their smartphone’s videos and photos and not fill-up the free 5G of space.
There are some local rivals to this startup already, such as from Shanda (NASDAQ:SNDA) or Kanbox, though neither of those are so truly cross-platform. There’s also GoAruna, though its free 2GB is too limited. Yes, there sure are a lot of clouds now over China, and I’m not talking about Beijing’s notorious pollution.
To hear about where Yun.io is heading next, I chatted with Chris Matthews, who’s from the US, who founded this startup along with Rick Olson (no relation to the Olson in this site’s name!) earlier this year:
How large is the Yun.io startup team, and how do you operate right now?
When we embarked on this journey, there were two of us. Many side projects and detours later, we officially registered as a Chinese company and we are located in Shanghai. We now have 15 people in the company.
The Yun.io web app (click to enlarge).
How can you differentiate your service from local competitors, like Shanda’s cloud sync Everbox?
First and foremost is user experience and design. Feature wise, other than making the process smoother and easier (though we think this is a great advantage), there aren’t many distinctions yet between us and other similar products. However, this will change in the next three to six months as we unveil powerful sharing features no one has seen before.
What’s your revenue model? I see you have levels of paid storage above the free 5G of space?
The subscription model is our secondary revenue model; we’re not how sure how viable this model will be in China yet. Our primary revenue model is to eventually become a paid content distribution platform. Or something.
You develop for 5 platforms, which is odd for a Chinese company. Why do that?
We do it because we want Yun.io to be cross platform and that’s what cross platform means. It’s the same kind of thinking as when we put what others may consider an excessive amount of time/resource into details that only very few may ever notice. We believe this kind of uncompromising discipline is required in the making of a great product. We also want our first group of users to be the kind of people who are leaders of their industry and social circles, and these people are often using Mac and Linux!
What are your goals for the first full year of Yun.io?
The first step is to optimize the sync technology to make sure it will be impeccable even under high load, because this is the core of our offering. In the next three to six months, our goal is to build the best sync technology in the industry, including features such as delta sync and group sync. After that, we should be ready to release our API to the public, and for the next six month focus on expansion and scaling.
Cloud syncing has been quite slow to take off in China. Why is that?
The reason why no companies in China has achieved anything near Dropbox’s success in the USA is because a truly good sync tool is very difficult to make. So next time you meet someone that works in a company with a product that syncs, give him/her a hug.
Yun.io apps are available on its download page. Check back later for the iPhone/iOS version.
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