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There's definitely a resource curse with the advertising dollars but how would chat/messaging be silo'd? Users don't pay for it (individually) and it doesn't sh

There's definitely a resource curse with the advertising dollars but how would chat/messaging be silo'd? Users don't pay for it (individually) and it doesn't show ads (afaik?). It doesn't make money. The only reasons to build it are so Google employees aren't using other companies meeting/chat/messaging apps, so users aren't lured into competitors ecosystems and... what else? Pride? Ego?

acdha 4y ago
That's basically the problem, isn't it? If it's effectively make-work, you get the kind of decisions we've seen. In the unlikely event that their hiring process failed badly enough to put me in a C-level position, I would have approached it as a revenue-generating service: invest some initial startup funds but have a plan that you're going to build a paid service around it, maybe with an ad-supported free tier but in either case you need a revenue model where the head person's performance is measured on people actively using the service.
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  There's also the "commoditizing your compliment argument" for building a messaging platform but does that strategy make sense if all your competitors are doing the same?
  - acdha 4y ago
    Yeah, I don't want to claim that I have the secret for how to monetize these things well. My thought was just that they didn't consider the costs either to their brand of letting users down or by providing a path where entire groups of people could influence other parts of the company with no experience bringing in business.
rurp 4y ago
Presumably any new product they are building is to increase revenue somewhere, even if it's in another product. They might expect that getting X usage in a chat app will translate to Y additional ads income; due to better tracking data, more chances to show ads, etc. In that case some of the ads revenue could be attributed to the new chat app, based on usage. Some assumptions would need to be made, but the allocations could be tracked, measured, and analyzed pretty well. Of course an approach like this would require some amount of direction and purpose, which is not at all a part of Google's core competencies.
matthewdgreen 4y ago
Chat and email activity are great ways to distinguish real humans from clickbots. At least in theory you can mine that data for ad preferences, too.
montroser 4y ago
The way it makes money is through Google Workspace. You have to pay for a higher priced plan (maybe Business Plus) in order to get Meet features like recording and other extended host controls.

acdha 4y ago

That's basically the problem, isn't it? If it's effectively make-work, you get the kind of decisions we've seen. In the unlikely event that their hiring process failed badly enough to put me in a C-level position, I would have approached it as a revenue-generating service: invest some initial startup funds but have a plan that you're going to build a paid service around it, maybe with an ad-supported free tier but in either case you need a revenue model where the head person's performance is measured on people actively using the service.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
There's also the "commoditizing your compliment argument" for building a messaging platform but does that strategy make sense if all your competitors are doing the same?
- acdha 4y ago
  Yeah, I don't want to claim that I have the secret for how to monetize these things well. My thought was just that they didn't consider the costs either to their brand of letting users down or by providing a path where entire groups of people could influence other parts of the company with no experience bringing in business.

rurp 4y ago

Presumably any new product they are building is to increase revenue somewhere, even if it's in another product. They might expect that getting X usage in a chat app will translate to Y additional ads income; due to better tracking data, more chances to show ads, etc. In that case some of the ads revenue could be attributed to the new chat app, based on usage. Some assumptions would need to be made, but the allocations could be tracked, measured, and analyzed pretty well. Of course an approach like this would require some amount of direction and purpose, which is not at all a part of Google's core competencies.

matthewdgreen 4y ago

Chat and email activity are great ways to distinguish real humans from clickbots. At least in theory you can mine that data for ad preferences, too.

montroser 4y ago

The way it makes money is through Google Workspace. You have to pay for a higher priced plan (maybe Business Plus) in order to get Meet features like recording and other extended host controls.