Re:Alphabet reports Q1 earnings
by ocdtrekkie on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @07:34PM
(#26963464)
Sure, but most of these otherwise successful products never even attempted a business model. I could pick a dozen Google apps today and challenge you to determine how Google ever expected to benefit from them. Ironically, most random Google apps don't even display ads. I assume some might exist solely to collect ad data, but I am not sure if Google's ad team is investing steadily in how to mine worthwhile data out of each and every scattered new Google app.
Which is to say, there's probably a decent number of apps Google created and shut down, which probably would've been pretty successful companies on their own with a modest monetization model. But Google never attempted it, because the user count didn't hit nine figures.
And let's be real, a huge swath of VC funded startups recklessly engage in "growth hacking" to acquire users, without a legitimate business plan, usually, e.g.
Step 1: get users Step 2: <magic happens> Step 3: Profit!
And then it turns out their ideas for monetization don't work, and they get an exit via acquisition by one of the big players as the VCs try to get some of their money back and leave someone else holding the bag.
SV is littered with companies that had millions of users but ended up folding and selling, because ultimately, running a business isn't free, and those users have to generate enough revenue to cover costs plus ROI.