5 ms·

Google's revenue is more diversified today than it's ever been. This is a facile take.

by guyzero 6y ago

hated 6y ago
Says the commenter with zero evidence to support their claims.
- guyzero 6y ago
  Come on, anyone can read GOOG financial statements. https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20201030_alphabet_10Q.pdf https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20201030_alphabet_10Q.pd... Q3 2019, ads were 84% of revenue Q3 2020, ads were 81% of revenue It's not a massive change, but it's changing and ads are at the lowest percentage of overall revenue they've ever been.
  - kodah 6y ago
    > It's not a massive change, but it's changing and ads are at the lowest percentage of overall revenue they've ever been. "More diversified than it's ever been" can be factually true here, but for the purposes of this discussion was highly inaccurate.
    - libria 6y ago
      OP was directly responding to: > They've mostly given up on the idea of a clever person finding a new money-hose. They just focus on the one they have now. The financial numbers suggest they have not given up and have succeeded incrementally towards other sources since. How else do you correct the above statement?
  - bg24 6y ago
    Agree. Cloud, health, self-driving cars, devices.. all these have the potentials to become the next big thing. Growing from $1B to $10B is really difficult, unless you have virtually no competition.
- mikestew 6y ago
  There's no posted evidence for the idea that Google only makes money on advertising, either. Can we have a discussion where we assume that everyone isn't an idiot who needs a link for every statement? Or do you seriously think advertising is the only way Google makes money? If so, sibling comment posted some nice links that one would do well to read.
  - NoOneNew 6y ago
    They're publicly traded. Their revenue sources are open for the public to read. The other guy saying they're diversified linked to their quarterly to show 80% ad revenue. That's pretty much "they're an ad company".
    - guyzero 6y ago
      A decade ago when the OP was an intern it was 100%! Non-ad revenue source have grown by infinity percent! I made a very specific claim and I'm not sure what everyone's problem is. Google has found other sources of revenue and is actively trying to grow those sources. There are other hoses. I have never claimed it's not an ad company or that ads have somehow gone away. Because that would be dumb and factually wrong.
NoOneNew 6y ago
Being "well diversified" is subjective. But in freelance/contracting, the rule of thumb is to never have a customer account for more than 25% of your yearly income. You diversify your client base so when one walks away, it's never too big of a hit. Ads make up 80% of their revenue. That's not diversified. That's an ad company that dabbles in other things. If Shell or BP's revenue was 80% oil and 20% solar, wouldn't you still call them oil companies that dabble in solar?
- guyzero 6y ago
  To quote the OP, "There is no second hose." My statement is that yes, there is a second hose. I've never said they're not primarily an ad company.
  - RussianCow 6y ago
    If it constitutes significantly less than 20% of their revenue, it's not a "hose that pours money out". So no, Google has not yet found a second hose, even if they've found other revenue streams.
    - guyzero 6y ago
      Non-ad revenues are a $36B business (annualized based on Q3 revenue). What's the threshold for something being a "hose"? A $36B business is a pretty big business!
      - guyzero 6y ago
        A $36B revenue business makes Google's non-ad business roughly the 94th largest company in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_the_United_States_by_revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_t...
      - RussianCow 6y ago
        That $36B doesn't come from a single source. Google Cloud is their single largest non-ad revenue stream, at $3.4B in Q3 (or 7.4% of total revenue). The rest of their non-advertising revenue ($5.5B, or 11.8% of total revenue) is lumped into the "other" category, which implies that they have a lot of smaller revenue streams that add up to a larger figure—not a single hose. So I guess you could maybe call Google Cloud a "hose" at ~$14B per year, but it certainly doesn't print money like their advertising business, and is a relatively small source of revenue for such a large company.

Google's revenue is more diversified today than it's ever been. This is a facile take.

hated 6y ago

Says the commenter with zero evidence to support their claims.

guyzero 6y ago
Come on, anyone can read GOOG financial statements. https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20201030_alphabet_10Q.pdf https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20201030_alphabet_10Q.pd... Q3 2019, ads were 84% of revenue Q3 2020, ads were 81% of revenue It's not a massive change, but it's changing and ads are at the lowest percentage of overall revenue they've ever been.
- kodah 6y ago
  > It's not a massive change, but it's changing and ads are at the lowest percentage of overall revenue they've ever been. "More diversified than it's ever been" can be factually true here, but for the purposes of this discussion was highly inaccurate.
  - libria 6y ago
    OP was directly responding to: > They've mostly given up on the idea of a clever person finding a new money-hose. They just focus on the one they have now. The financial numbers suggest they have not given up and have succeeded incrementally towards other sources since. How else do you correct the above statement?
- bg24 6y ago
  Agree. Cloud, health, self-driving cars, devices.. all these have the potentials to become the next big thing. Growing from $1B to $10B is really difficult, unless you have virtually no competition.
mikestew 6y ago
There's no posted evidence for the idea that Google only makes money on advertising, either. Can we have a discussion where we assume that everyone isn't an idiot who needs a link for every statement? Or do you seriously think advertising is the only way Google makes money? If so, sibling comment posted some nice links that one would do well to read.
- NoOneNew 6y ago
  They're publicly traded. Their revenue sources are open for the public to read. The other guy saying they're diversified linked to their quarterly to show 80% ad revenue. That's pretty much "they're an ad company".
  - guyzero 6y ago
    A decade ago when the OP was an intern it was 100%! Non-ad revenue source have grown by infinity percent! I made a very specific claim and I'm not sure what everyone's problem is. Google has found other sources of revenue and is actively trying to grow those sources. There are other hoses. I have never claimed it's not an ad company or that ads have somehow gone away. Because that would be dumb and factually wrong.

NoOneNew 6y ago

Being "well diversified" is subjective. But in freelance/contracting, the rule of thumb is to never have a customer account for more than 25% of your yearly income. You diversify your client base so when one walks away, it's never too big of a hit. Ads make up 80% of their revenue. That's not diversified. That's an ad company that dabbles in other things. If Shell or BP's revenue was 80% oil and 20% solar, wouldn't you still call them oil companies that dabble in solar?

guyzero 6y ago
To quote the OP, "There is no second hose." My statement is that yes, there is a second hose. I've never said they're not primarily an ad company.
- RussianCow 6y ago
  If it constitutes significantly less than 20% of their revenue, it's not a "hose that pours money out". So no, Google has not yet found a second hose, even if they've found other revenue streams.
  - guyzero 6y ago
    Non-ad revenues are a $36B business (annualized based on Q3 revenue). What's the threshold for something being a "hose"? A $36B business is a pretty big business!
    - guyzero 6y ago
      A $36B revenue business makes Google's non-ad business roughly the 94th largest company in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_the_United_States_by_revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_t...
    - RussianCow 6y ago
      That $36B doesn't come from a single source. Google Cloud is their single largest non-ad revenue stream, at $3.4B in Q3 (or 7.4% of total revenue). The rest of their non-advertising revenue ($5.5B, or 11.8% of total revenue) is lumped into the "other" category, which implies that they have a lot of smaller revenue streams that add up to a larger figure—not a single hose. So I guess you could maybe call Google Cloud a "hose" at ~$14B per year, but it certainly doesn't print money like their advertising business, and is a relatively small source of revenue for such a large company.