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> Not sure I understand this response, nor do I agree. AWS drove $13.5B in _profit_ for Amazon in 2020, and has been profitable since at least 2014, _8 years_ a

> Not sure I understand this response, nor do I agree. AWS drove $13.5B in _profit_ for Amazon in 2020, and has been profitable since at least 2014, _8 years_ after its founding.[1] Here's the question to ask: if Google stopped investing aggressively in marketing and building new offerings to expand the Cloud userbase could it be profitable today? Or in other words, is it better to have 30% YoY growth and on paper profitability, or 45% YoY growth and an on paper loss, with the ability to flip the switch and move to the first option whenever you want?

yellowyacht 6y ago
Is that really the case here? Is Google's marketing holding them back from profitability? Is GCP spending more on marketing than building useful products & expanding their infrastructure?
enos_feedler 6y ago
If they stopped spending on product and infrastructure build out, they could maybe be profitable at an instantaneous point in time. The issue is that Azure and AWS will continue developing and that will drive the market. Google share will erode and they will not be profitable again.
s3r3nity 6y ago
> 30% YoY growth and on paper profitability, or 45% YoY growth and an on paper loss, with the ability to flip the switch and move to the first option whenever you want? This sounds suspiciously like a line from the WeWork documentary on Hulu.
- joshuamorton 6y ago
  Well its a common refrain when discussing startups and high growth business. I'm basically quoting the (ultimately correct) argument about AWS and Amazon as a whole from a decade ago. People were concerned about Amazon not being profitable (or being just barely profitable) for a long time. And then eventually they decided to be profitable.
  - enos_feedler 6y ago
    Exactly. The difference between WeWork and Google Cloud is that WeWork has an unproven viable market, whereas cloud computing has competing, larger players. (If you are implying that GCP could collapse like WeWork)

yellowyacht 6y ago

Is that really the case here? Is Google's marketing holding them back from profitability? Is GCP spending more on marketing than building useful products & expanding their infrastructure?

enos_feedler 6y ago

If they stopped spending on product and infrastructure build out, they could maybe be profitable at an instantaneous point in time. The issue is that Azure and AWS will continue developing and that will drive the market. Google share will erode and they will not be profitable again.

s3r3nity 6y ago

> 30% YoY growth and on paper profitability, or 45% YoY growth and an on paper loss, with the ability to flip the switch and move to the first option whenever you want? This sounds suspiciously like a line from the WeWork documentary on Hulu.

joshuamorton 6y ago
Well its a common refrain when discussing startups and high growth business. I'm basically quoting the (ultimately correct) argument about AWS and Amazon as a whole from a decade ago. People were concerned about Amazon not being profitable (or being just barely profitable) for a long time. And then eventually they decided to be profitable.
- enos_feedler 6y ago
  Exactly. The difference between WeWork and Google Cloud is that WeWork has an unproven viable market, whereas cloud computing has competing, larger players. (If you are implying that GCP could collapse like WeWork)