News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why I left Google to join Grab by vageli on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @08:40AM (#16222519)
What do you mean by

> ..a software industry ( which based on profit margins is a toddler )

I thought software has higher margins than most industries.

Re:Why I left Google to join Grab by notyourday on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @08:42AM (#16222534)
High profit margins imply very immature industry. As industries mature the profit margins drop.
Re:Why I left Google to join Grab by sah2ed on Thursday January 25, 2018 @01:57AM (#16229288)
Not always. High profits largely depends on the kind of competitive advantage (trade secrets, patents, market share etc) that can be deployed in one's sector, it is independent of industry.

A few counter-examples that illustrates my point:

1. Having a trade secret that allows only you to manufacture a good exclusively with high margins. The best known example is Coca Cola. They enjoy average gross margins of 60%.

https://ycharts.com/companies/KO/gross_profit_margin

2. Intel enjoys a near-monopoly in the hardware industry selling server CPUs. They enjoy 63% margins on ~$16b in quarterly revenue.

3. Professional services. I believe this one is self-evident because you can mostly get away with charging value-based prices instead of cost-based prices that is predominant in industries like manufacturing.

IBM Global Services contributes more than 60% of IBM's revenue which allows them to enjoy about 50% gross margins even though IBM GS has only been around since 1991. If industry maturity were truly a dominant factor, 26 years is more than enough time for their industry to "mature".

Re:Why I left Google to join Grab by lookACamel on Monday January 29, 2018 @10:08PM (#16262620)
1. If by trade secret you mean Coke's branding, marketing and historical dominance.
Re:Why I left Google to join Grab by sah2ed on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @08:48AM (#16265206)
1. No, I meant Coke's recipe is a secret known only to a handful of anonymous employees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_formula#Current_ingr...