I guess the high potential reward outweighs the low chance of success for each individual product. Same reason anyone else makes a messaging app, except that Go

I guess the high potential reward outweighs the low chance of success for each individual product. Same reason anyone else makes a messaging app, except that Google has other ways to capitalize on a success than hoping to be bought up. People are obviously messaging each other, so the demand is proven, and exactly which messaging apps make it big seems to be a bit random, so from that perspective pumping out a lot of them and seeing what sticks is not the worst strategy. The safe bet is buying whoever comes out on top, but prices are a bit inflated at the moment.