Amazon Drive
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Type of site
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| Headquarters | United States |
| Area served | United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, China, Brazil |
| Industry | Internet |
| Parent | Amazon.com |
| Website | amazon.com/clouddrive |
| Alexa rank |
 7 (As of 6 August 2016[update])
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| Registration | Required |
| Launched | March 29, 2011 |
| Current status | Active |
Amazon Drive, formerly known as Cloud Drive, is a cloud storage application managed by Amazon. The service offers secure cloud storage, file backup, file sharing, and Photo printing. Using an Amazon account, the files and folders can be transferred and managed from multiple devices including web browsers, desktop applications, mobiles, and tablets. Amazon Drive also lets their U.S. users order photo prints and photo books using Amazon Prints service
Amazon first announced the storage service on March 29, 2011, initially offering pay-as-you-need tiered storage plans for the users. Today, Amazon Drive offers free unlimited photo storage with an Amazon Prime subscription or a Kindle Fire device, and a paid unlimited storage service. Launched in major countries including U.S, Canada, European nations, Japan, and Australia, Amazon Drive is one of the very few services to offer unlimited storage plan for non-business usage. It also functions in China and Brazil as a free limited 5GB storage service.
When Amazon Drive was first launched, the service supported only tier-based plans for their customers. Users paid only for the storage tier they utilized expandable up to a maximum of 1 Terabyte plan. Eventually, these tiered plans were replaced with unlimited storage plans. Today, Amazon majorly offers two plans in their marketplaces - Prime Photos and Unlimited Storage. While the Prime Photos benefits had prevailed from November 2014, Unlimited Storage plans intended for non-business customer sections were introduced only from March 2015.
The Prime Photos plan offers unlimited storage for photos and RAW files, and a 5 gigabytes of storage for videos and other files. Photos can be uploaded to Amazon Drive with iOS or Android apps, Kindle device, or the Cloud Drive website. Additionally, users of Kindle Fire tablets also get the plan's benefits along with the purchase of device. Their photos and videos will automatically backup from device to the Amazon Drive's cloud storage. According to Amazon, Prime Photos is only available for personal, non-commercial use and can't be used in conjunction with a photography business. Full resolution photo formats and RAW files can be uploaded, but most Raw formats won't be viewable within the service's web interface or apps.
The Unlimited Storage plan offers unlimited storage for photos, videos, documents, and files in other formats. The plan was first launched for U.S. market in March 2015 and eventually expanded its presence to European countries, Japan, and Australia. The plan offers a free 3-month free trial for the customers who wish to try the service before entering an annual subscription. During 2015 Black Friday, the plan became popular when Amazon offered 92% discounted Unlimited Storage plan for $5, down from $60, for a year from purchase. The fine print states that Unlimited Storage is "only for private use", is restricted by file type, and must not "substantially exceed or differ from normal use by other users". Amazon anytime "may impose other restrictions on use of the Service".
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Wikipedia