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> I can just as easily say that the best way to maximize shareholder value is to minimize public scandal, scrutiny, and potential for legislature. Scandals can

> I can just as easily say that the best way to maximize shareholder value is to minimize public scandal, scrutiny, and potential for legislature. Scandals can get free marketing, for example, Nike and Colin Kaepernick. Attention is always better than no attention at all for a business. Every single decision is made to increase profit but there might be many things that need to be accomplished first so its hard to see the big picture. For example, a developer might want to improve a feature because they want more people to use their product. A manager gets approval to pay that developer because the investment is deemed a profitable one. What does the person who gave them that money care about the number of users. It's not their invention and they don't even use the service? They give the money because they know that More users = more market share = more ads to sell = a return greater than the initial investment. Until a business can run with people working for free, the person paying for things always dictates what is bought and thus the direction the company is headed. Let's say that direction is contrary to the direction of another prominent member of the business wants it to go. Whether you want to believe it or not, the same calculus goes on in every person's mind: Is this the potential payoff of Option A greater than the potential loss of Option B given the risk?

mikeash 7y ago
This is a wonderfully condescending response but it answers nothing. The question was, why can’t google do it differently? This doesn’t answer the question. We can plainly see this from the fact that other companies, operating under the same conditions you describe, make different choices. This is the business equivalent of saying “because physics.” It’s not wrong, it’s just not useful.
- blackflame7000 7y ago
  Sorry, I didn't mean to be condescending. To answer your question, the reason Google can't do things differently is that they have already established themselves as first and formost and advertisement company and the way to do that best is to know their audience very intimately. Other businesses like Apple have established themselves as a hardware company first so they aren't dependent on user data as much so they took advantage of that and established themselves as the "Secure" phone. Google is too large and it makes too much money from its core business which is ad drive. As long as search and ads are their cash cow they cannot change in the way you hope.

mikeash 7y ago

This is a wonderfully condescending response but it answers nothing. The question was, why can’t google do it differently? This doesn’t answer the question. We can plainly see this from the fact that other companies, operating under the same conditions you describe, make different choices. This is the business equivalent of saying “because physics.” It’s not wrong, it’s just not useful.

blackflame7000 7y ago
Sorry, I didn't mean to be condescending. To answer your question, the reason Google can't do things differently is that they have already established themselves as first and formost and advertisement company and the way to do that best is to know their audience very intimately. Other businesses like Apple have established themselves as a hardware company first so they aren't dependent on user data as much so they took advantage of that and established themselves as the "Secure" phone. Google is too large and it makes too much money from its core business which is ad drive. As long as search and ads are their cash cow they cannot change in the way you hope.