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Parts of the analogy are true: over dependence on a single source of lucrative revenue can make it hard to invest in new things. That said, the analogy breaks

Parts of the analogy are true: over dependence on a single source of lucrative revenue can make it hard to invest in new things. That said, the analogy breaks down. Petro-states have other issues: weak institutions, corruption. Their lucrative revenue steam, unlike online ads at least so far, is also very volatile with boom and bust cycles. It also creates all sorts of weird economic distortions, like exchange rate effects that make it hard to invest in other industries. And finally, GCP, Waymo, Android and many others beg to differ. Yes, Google still depends primarily on Ads, but it's far from being the Venezuela or Iraq of companies.

tw04 6y ago
>GCP GCP is still flailing around trying to find solid ground. After multiple fits and starts, with Kurian at the helm they're at least making an attempt to attract enterprises, but their inability to commit to a product in the consumer division has ABSOLUTELY tarnished their reputation with the enterprise. >Waymo, Android Waymo and Android have only survived because they feed the advertising beast. Don't kid yourself into believing either one would still exist if they didn't. The reason google can't make a decent messaging app is because by definition, people want their messages to be private. Google can't data mine and let you have privacy - it's why allo literally died DURING the product announcement because someone caught wind that they were going to do encrypted chats that couldn't be data mined. And instead they're trying to push RCS - without encryption - that nobody wants besides them and the mobile companies who also want to data mine. Everything about a petro state seems to apply here. As for google not having weak institutions and corruption, I'd say they just do a better job of covering it up than most petro states. See: Andy Rubin.
- Ozzie_osman 6y ago
  Andy Rubin case is horrendous, but it's a different type of corruption. Petro corruption would be siphoning money off to personal accounts, kick backs, etc. Anyway, petro states depend on a single source of depletable revenue. They even fail at all attempts to expand up the value chain around services or refining of their oil. Even if Google's only successes are around furthering their ads revenue, that's still a far cry from petro states.
  - tw04 6y ago
    >They even fail at all attempts to expand up the value chain around services or refining of their oil. What are you talking about? Saudi Aramco has extensive refining capabilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco#Refining_and_chemicals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco#Refining_and_chem... They got into exploration, and shipping as well. So they ABSOLUTELY build successes around the cash cow, just like google.

tw04 6y ago

>GCP GCP is still flailing around trying to find solid ground. After multiple fits and starts, with Kurian at the helm they're at least making an attempt to attract enterprises, but their inability to commit to a product in the consumer division has ABSOLUTELY tarnished their reputation with the enterprise. >Waymo, Android Waymo and Android have only survived because they feed the advertising beast. Don't kid yourself into believing either one would still exist if they didn't. The reason google can't make a decent messaging app is because by definition, people want their messages to be private. Google can't data mine and let you have privacy - it's why allo literally died DURING the product announcement because someone caught wind that they were going to do encrypted chats that couldn't be data mined. And instead they're trying to push RCS - without encryption - that nobody wants besides them and the mobile companies who also want to data mine. Everything about a petro state seems to apply here. As for google not having weak institutions and corruption, I'd say they just do a better job of covering it up than most petro states. See: Andy Rubin.

Ozzie_osman 6y ago
Andy Rubin case is horrendous, but it's a different type of corruption. Petro corruption would be siphoning money off to personal accounts, kick backs, etc. Anyway, petro states depend on a single source of depletable revenue. They even fail at all attempts to expand up the value chain around services or refining of their oil. Even if Google's only successes are around furthering their ads revenue, that's still a far cry from petro states.
- tw04 6y ago
  >They even fail at all attempts to expand up the value chain around services or refining of their oil. What are you talking about? Saudi Aramco has extensive refining capabilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco#Refining_and_chemicals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco#Refining_and_chem... They got into exploration, and shipping as well. So they ABSOLUTELY build successes around the cash cow, just like google.