21 ms·

I appreciate that Google tries new things, but I don't get why their success rate seems to fall far short of Amazon.

asperous 7y ago
I think they way they see it is they are a company of scale. Scale is what they are good at (if anything). So they shutdown lots of small successes to try and focus on the huge wins.. things like youtube, gmail, google docs, etc. things millions of people use.
- ineedasername 7y ago
  This is a reasonable perspective on their actions, but it then it still belies a huge glaring problem in Google fundamentally lacking the ability to understand which projects have the potential for scale at the desired level. It seems a standard part of a typical SV pitch deck to address the potential market and growth opportunities. Sure, they're wildly optimistic most times, but VC knows this and can price it in. But it almost seems like Google doesn't have the internal filtering mechanism necessary to perform this same function.
nmfisher 7y ago
> I appreciate that Google tries new things, but I don't get why their success rate seems to fall far short of Amazon. From the ground up, Amazon is focused on customers. Its mission statement is literally "to be Earth's most customer-centric company." Compare with Google: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google just isn't a customer-focused company. It seems many people who've tried to deal with their front-facing staff directly (AdWords, Pixel, Cloud, etc) have experienced this. They don't need to be, because search/ads are a licence to print money.
tjpnz 7y ago
From what I've heard Amazon has a more data driven approach to product development. They're still prepared to take risks, but do it in a more controlled fashion. There's no Amazon Stadia yet (for example) but there is Lumberyard and various services catered towards game developers on AWS. If they do decide to launch something similar in future they will at least have some understanding of the industry they're getting into.
vineyardmike 7y ago
Google seems to build things their engineers want to build. Amazon seems to build things their customers want to have.

I think they way they see it is they are a company of scale. Scale is what they are good at (if anything). So they shutdown lots of small successes to try and focus on the huge wins.. things like youtube, gmail, google docs, etc. things millions of people use.

ineedasername 7y ago
This is a reasonable perspective on their actions, but it then it still belies a huge glaring problem in Google fundamentally lacking the ability to understand which projects have the potential for scale at the desired level. It seems a standard part of a typical SV pitch deck to address the potential market and growth opportunities. Sure, they're wildly optimistic most times, but VC knows this and can price it in. But it almost seems like Google doesn't have the internal filtering mechanism necessary to perform this same function.

nmfisher 7y ago

> I appreciate that Google tries new things, but I don't get why their success rate seems to fall far short of Amazon. From the ground up, Amazon is focused on customers. Its mission statement is literally "to be Earth's most customer-centric company." Compare with Google: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google just isn't a customer-focused company. It seems many people who've tried to deal with their front-facing staff directly (AdWords, Pixel, Cloud, etc) have experienced this. They don't need to be, because search/ads are a licence to print money.

tjpnz 7y ago

From what I've heard Amazon has a more data driven approach to product development. They're still prepared to take risks, but do it in a more controlled fashion. There's no Amazon Stadia yet (for example) but there is Lumberyard and various services catered towards game developers on AWS. If they do decide to launch something similar in future they will at least have some understanding of the industry they're getting into.

vineyardmike 7y ago

Google seems to build things their engineers want to build. Amazon seems to build things their customers want to have.