Re:Alphabet reports Q1 earnings
by enos_feedler on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @06:43PM
(#26962905)
If they stopped spending on product and infrastructure build out, they could maybe be profitable at an instantaneous point in time. The issue is that Azure and AWS will continue developing and that will drive the market. Google share will erode and they will not be profitable again.
Re:Alphabet reports Q1 earnings
by yellowyacht on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @06:33PM
(#26962769)
Is that really the case here? Is Google's marketing holding them back from profitability? Is GCP spending more on marketing than building useful products & expanding their infrastructure?
> 30% YoY growth and on paper profitability, or 45% YoY growth and an on paper loss, with the ability to flip the switch and move to the first option whenever you want?
This sounds suspiciously like a line from the WeWork documentary on Hulu.
Re:Alphabet reports Q1 earnings
by joshuamorton on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @11:52PM
(#26965361)
Well its a common refrain when discussing startups and high growth business. I'm basically quoting the (ultimately correct) argument about AWS and Amazon as a whole from a decade ago. People were concerned about Amazon not being profitable (or being just barely profitable) for a long time. And then eventually they decided to be profitable.
Re:Alphabet reports Q1 earnings
by enos_feedler on Thursday April 29, 2021 @04:34PM
(#26986362)
Exactly. The difference between WeWork and Google Cloud is that WeWork has an unproven viable market, whereas cloud computing has competing, larger players. (If you are implying that GCP could collapse like WeWork)
Here's the question to ask: if Google stopped investing aggressively in marketing and building new offerings to expand the Cloud userbase could it be profitable today?
Or in other words, is it better to have 30% YoY growth and on paper profitability, or 45% YoY growth and an on paper loss, with the ability to flip the switch and move to the first option whenever you want?