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They are an internet company. This is how internet companies work, generate such high profits, and command such high valuations. Businesses which scale by hiri

They are an internet company. This is how internet companies work, generate such high profits, and command such high valuations. Businesses which scale by hiring are much harder to grow and tend to be a lot less profitable. As a result, internet companies tend to see such businesses as not worth being in. Sure, there are lots of successful companies which operate this way, but Google sees it as an unacceptably high opportunity cost. Rather than pour resources into growing a scale by hiring business, they would rather put the resources toward a different business that they think they can scale with non-linear hiring. Given this, it surprises me that Google is going after the enterprise cloud business. It is pretty well known that such businesses scale fairly linearly with sales and support staff. My understanding is that they know this and are attempting to scale the business this way instead of their usual strategy of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away.

htrp 5y ago
> Given this, it surprises me that Google is going after the enterprise cloud business. It is pretty well known that such businesses scale fairly linearly with sales and support staff. My understanding is that they know this and are attempting to scale the business this way instead of their usual strategy of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away. GCP can't get their act together to get a consistent enterprise sales model done....
nvarsj 5y ago
> My understanding is that they know this and are attempting to scale the business this way instead of their usual strategy of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away. Ha ha. Last I heard, Google were actively trying to remove their engineers from client engagements, and replace them with third party "Google preferred suppliers". They really don't want to ever be face to face with a customer.
- Wiseacre 5y ago
  Isn't that every big tech company?
  - BizarroLand 5y ago
    Yeah, because satisfying shareholders is more important than providing a quality service. Entropy exists even in digital systems. Maintenance is a must, and the easiest thing to overlook is the people who use your services (providing them value) when the people who pay for the value the users provide as the ones putting money in your bank account. It's too easy to forget that if you do not take care of the users, they will leave and take the payers with them. Right now it's hard to escape Google. But a little river carved the Grand Canyon, and as more people leave the services and provide easy to use alternatives, more people will follow. My guess is that, even though it might take 20 years if Google does not redirect their focus to be more equilaterally supportive of their users then Google will inevitably become a modern Yahoo.
    - cik2e 5y ago
      This is a complete tangent, but to be fair, the river was much larger when said carving began. :) Rim to rim, the canyon is pretty darned wide.
arnaudsm 5y ago
You're missing the point, this debate isn't about FAANG profits, it's about protecting democracy. Maybe the root issue was letting 4 private companies control the entire public debate with dangerous moderation practices.
GeekyBear 5y ago
> They are an internet company. This is how internet companies work, generate such high profits, and command such high valuations. When something goes wrong, Apple, Amazon and Netflix (as examples) all manage to provide free, robust customer service. Google can afford to support it's customers. They choose not to.

htrp 5y ago

> Given this, it surprises me that Google is going after the enterprise cloud business. It is pretty well known that such businesses scale fairly linearly with sales and support staff. My understanding is that they know this and are attempting to scale the business this way instead of their usual strategy of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away. GCP can't get their act together to get a consistent enterprise sales model done....

nvarsj 5y ago

> My understanding is that they know this and are attempting to scale the business this way instead of their usual strategy of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away. Ha ha. Last I heard, Google were actively trying to remove their engineers from client engagements, and replace them with third party "Google preferred suppliers". They really don't want to ever be face to face with a customer.

Wiseacre 5y ago
Isn't that every big tech company?
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  Yeah, because satisfying shareholders is more important than providing a quality service. Entropy exists even in digital systems. Maintenance is a must, and the easiest thing to overlook is the people who use your services (providing them value) when the people who pay for the value the users provide as the ones putting money in your bank account. It's too easy to forget that if you do not take care of the users, they will leave and take the payers with them. Right now it's hard to escape Google. But a little river carved the Grand Canyon, and as more people leave the services and provide easy to use alternatives, more people will follow. My guess is that, even though it might take 20 years if Google does not redirect their focus to be more equilaterally supportive of their users then Google will inevitably become a modern Yahoo.
  - cik2e 5y ago
    This is a complete tangent, but to be fair, the river was much larger when said carving began. :) Rim to rim, the canyon is pretty darned wide.

arnaudsm 5y ago

You're missing the point, this debate isn't about FAANG profits, it's about protecting democracy. Maybe the root issue was letting 4 private companies control the entire public debate with dangerous moderation practices.

GeekyBear 5y ago

> They are an internet company. This is how internet companies work, generate such high profits, and command such high valuations. When something goes wrong, Apple, Amazon and Netflix (as examples) all manage to provide free, robust customer service. Google can afford to support it's customers. They choose not to.