Boldly going where every user has gone before
WeTransfer started in 2009 with a single point of contact for users: WeTransfer.com. Since then, it’s not only become the go-to service for 42 million people who share over a billion files every month, but we’ve developed some new touch points along the way — including iOS and Android apps and our thriving editorial site, WePresent.
Perhaps most exciting of all, we developed and released our own public API. While encouraging users to get building themselves, this predominantly opened the door to recreate the WeTransfer experience people know and love across a bunch of new platforms.
But in hand with this came the overwhelming pressure to suddenly be in all spaces, at all times.
In the world of online services, we often think that to be discovered, downloaded and adopted, we must grab the whole world’s attention from day one — and the only way to do that is to sell, sell, sell.
I disagree. Respectfully, of course.
Instead of building endless integrations, blanketing the entire digital ecosystem with our presence, we took a more reserved approach. We looked to our users to see where they were using WeTransfer. From a technical standpoint we could develop and partner with almost any platform we liked, but I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity and these decisions had to be the right ones.
We asked users how they like to work, on which platforms they spend their time and which tools they love — so we could determine how to serve them in new and interesting ways.
From there we carefully analyzed every company we saw as a potential partner, examining their visions and values before even picking up the phone and making choices based on our ability to solely provide experiences that not only excite our users, but that we are proud of.
This process brought us closer to the companies we admire. And after several months of due diligence, phone calls, conversations and meetings, we determined who our partners in crime would be and started developing.
Working with both our internal product team, our public API team and third party development agency, Robots and Pencils, we started down the design path to replicate the simple, safe and stylish experience we offer on WeTransfer.com.
We meticulously reviewed the features and functionalities of each platform we partnered with, finding that sweet spot for us to integrate without being intrusive. It was important for us to enhance the workflow of our users and never disrupt it — all while adhering to the same standards of privacy our users have come to expect.
Now, after months of late night design, development (and pizza delivery), we’re incredibly proud to announce that WeTransfer is available on Slack, Sketch, Chrome and Mozilla. And the fun doesn’t stop there — we’ll soon be a part of Invision App’s brand new Studio product, alongside being the default service for transferring files through email client, Thunderbird.
As WeTransfer continues to grow, we’ll continue to look for ways to integrate the experience our users know and love straight into the products they use every single day.
And now, with our public API, we’re looking to our community to help us deliver the building blocks people need to get in, and stay in, their creative flow.
We can’t wait to see where we’ll end up next.
