2 ms·
Rather than sharding the company, and getting stuck in endless discussions of where exactly to draw lines and what business units are unsustainable, why not nat
by hakfoo 3y ago
Rather than sharding the company, and getting stuck in endless discussions of where exactly to draw lines and what business units are unsustainable, why not nationalize it?
The "projecty" things like Chrome and Android and Waymo are arguably money sinks that will produce things of significant public value over time-- what if we funded them like other research probjects, with the understanding that the commercial applications will either generate public revenue or directly enhance domestic competitiveness. Imagine if in 5 years, the American carmakers had highly discounted access to Waymo's self-driving technology, but Mercedes and BMW still have to roll their own or license it at an intentionally hostile price?
The revenue-generating stuff could be "commoditized" -- turn it into white-label products they'll resell to all comers. You no longer go to Google, you go to a Google Reseller who provides their own ad or subscription monetization model to pay for the underlying infrastructure cost. Since they all have the same core index, they start from strong competitive parity, and then they can focus on their differentating features-- extended custom indexes, more tools, etc.