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Google Cloud lost $5.6B in 2020
- pasttense01 6y agoObviously it's time for Google to put it in the Google graveyard: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- darig 6y agoGoogle Cloud also hosted all their profitable infrastructure, so fun accounting lets them pay zero taxes. Just like how every billion dollar blockbuster movie is a loser on paper.
- jqpabc123 6y agoThe fastest way to convince me not to use a product is to put a Google label on it. Posted using a de-Googled Moto G4 Play running e/OS.
- acct776 6y agoDegoogling isn't all it's cracked up to be. You (probably) want their hardware. Definitely don't want their software. /e/ = Lineage = AOSP (Android) with weaker security.
- diegocg 6y agoThese losses are likely to be strategical. They are essentially buying customers with ad money.
- NikolaeVarius 6y ago> On the one hand, losses are mounting, up from $4.3 billion in 2018 and $4.6 billion in 2019, but revenue is also seeing strong growth, up from $5.8 billion in 2018 and $8.9 billion in 2019. Clickbait
- COGlory 6y agoHow do they turn those losses into profit? Raise prices by 50%?
- nojito 6y agoYou slowly eliminate free tiers and crank up pricing on usage. Google maps is a great example.
- eitally 6y agoConvert customer commits into consumption. Mature the ISV and SI ecosystem so partners build the business for them. Acquire profitable companies to fill critical gaps. Create differentiated industry solutions and products and sell them based on business outcomes (value based pricing, consulting model). Just a few ideas.
- fastest963 6y agoThey're probably spending a ton on marketing and datacenter growth. You'd slow down those if you wanted to make more profit. Right now they're trying to grow as fast as possible and are okay losing money in the short term.
- beaconstudios 6y agoah, losing money in order to grow. Also known as investing! It's irritating how journalists spin this to imply a company is haemorrhaging cash.
- shishy 6y ago"loss leadership"!
- refulgentis 6y agoArticle says data centers. They're the chicken that comes before the golden egg
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- intellix 6y agoThey've just released the cloud sql query insights and it's a game changer for me
- hg35h4 6y agoAWS was similar for years. Huge losses, now they are profitable. The big difference with Google Cloud is that they have a long history of jacking up pricing at random. Wake up one morning and find that the solution you just spent months building will bankrupt your business under the new pricing regime.
- desiarnezjr 6y agoNot only that, but Amazon has the discipline for a very long-term execution. To this day, many of the vertical categories on Amazon are very low margin or make little fiscal sense. But long-term they will probably win or make a big dent in those niches.
- ec109685 6y agoAWS didn’t suffer huge losses for years. In fact it was “hugely profitable”: https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/9/6/amazons-profits https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/9/6/amazons-pro...
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoYour linked article doesn't show that, at all. AWS as we know it today essentially had its first public release in 2006 with EC2 and S3, which means it existed for 7 years before your article even breaks out profit for AWS in 2013.
- ec109685 6y agoBut is there anything to support the huge losses angle?
- psds2 6y agoIt's hard to compare apples to apples here because AWS leverages infrastructure Amazon already had to keep around for seasonal surges to its core business. I do not believe that Google has excess capacity for seasonal demand.
- 0x426577617265 6y agoI’m always afraid of relying on Google services — never know what will get cut.
- pjmlp 6y agoLets see how long it takes to kill it, if they keep being 3rd > The Information reports that Alphabet leadership briefly considered leaving the cloud infrastructure market in 2018 due to concerns over profitability. While they ultimately opted to invest in a buildout, long-term funding looks contingent on Google Cloud leapfrogging Microsoft in market share by 2023. https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-reportedly-set-ambitious-goal-and-possible-deadline-for-gcp https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-reportedly-set-ambitio...
- kgin 6y agoThis is why I’m afraid of building things that go all-in on a proprietary platform like Firebase.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoWe will all lose out if there are only two suppliers in the market.
- pjmlp 6y agoHistory has proven that it always ends up with two major ones, and lots of tiny wannabes.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoOnly if you allow it. The UK has managed to keep four main supermarkets competing in the UK and this has resulted in low food prices.
- pjmlp 6y agoHere in Germany, besides the small neighborhood supermarkets, all the bigger chains somehow relate to the same conglomerates like Metro, even if they look like being unrelated to the common public.
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