What they are doing is exactly the opposite of what grandparent claimed Yahoo did.
They just create things that are useful.
Search, GMail, Maps, Chrome, Android, Youtube, Analytics and many other products and services.
If they can milk them from advertising, they will. But they don't necessarily care if it doesn't make money directly.
They own so many crucial parts of the internet that they cannot become irrelevant like Yahoo did.
Compare that to similar companies.
Facebook has only Facebook.com, Whatsapp and Instagram (which is basically just Facebook)
Amazon their store and AWS. Their other attempts (phone, tablets, Alexa, etc) have never took off.
Microsoft is in a powerful position as they have Windows, Office, Azure, XBox and Bing although they have not managed to gain share in new markets for quite some time.
I think Google is by far the most relevant company on the internet.
They gain market and the cash will flow later. This is in their DNA. This is how exactly it got started for them.
Their search was popular but was not making money for years. All they did was to focus on making it better, thinking that they'll find a way to make money later. And they did.
Exactly. Focus on providing value to your customer and all will be good with financials. Google grwth has actually accelerated as their numbers get bigger.
They just create things that are useful.
Search, GMail, Maps, Chrome, Android, Youtube, Analytics and many other products and services.
If they can milk them from advertising, they will. But they don't necessarily care if it doesn't make money directly.
They own so many crucial parts of the internet that they cannot become irrelevant like Yahoo did.
Compare that to similar companies.
Facebook has only Facebook.com, Whatsapp and Instagram (which is basically just Facebook)
Amazon their store and AWS. Their other attempts (phone, tablets, Alexa, etc) have never took off.
Microsoft is in a powerful position as they have Windows, Office, Azure, XBox and Bing although they have not managed to gain share in new markets for quite some time.
I think Google is by far the most relevant company on the internet.
They gain market and the cash will flow later. This is in their DNA. This is how exactly it got started for them.
Their search was popular but was not making money for years. All they did was to focus on making it better, thinking that they'll find a way to make money later. And they did.