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You clearly don't understand Google. They earn over 95% of their revenue from SELLING advertising. The other parts of their business e.g. search, mail, maps co

You clearly don't understand Google. They earn over 95% of their revenue from SELLING advertising. The other parts of their business e.g. search, mail, maps consume advertising like other web businesses. You are trying to equate the selling from the consumption which is illogical.

jan_g 14y ago
Yup, but you could say that for many IT companies. Why? Because most of them are getting money by utilizing advertising in one form or another. Is Twitter an advertising company? Is Facebook?
- flyinRyan 14y ago
  >Is Twitter an advertising company? Is Facebook? Are these serious questions? Of course they are. What else?
  - jan_g 14y ago
    I'm questioning the need to constantly repeat the obvious. Just about every thread that smells of Google gets derailed by meta conversation about advertising. For what is worth, I still consider these companies to be heavily tech oriented, despite their source of revenue. They give bread and butter to people like me - developers. Whereas your run-of-the-mill traditional advertising company doesn't.
    - chii 14y ago
      banks are very heavily tech oriented (as in they use a lot of tech and also make their own tech). and yet you won't call a bank a tech orient ed company because a company's model determines the 'orientation', not what sort of tools they use. many people agree that Google is an advert company. it just that they are different from the traditional Madison avenue style ad company. no one is saying that being an ad company is bad. nor are they disallowed to invest in tech. but they are not like the old research institute like the old palo alto xerox style company.
cromwellian 14y ago
Is Apple a phone carrier not a consumer electronics company, since a huge chunk of their revenues come from carrier subsidies that lock consumers into multiyear contracts that obfuscate the true costs (e.g. $2200)? Google is spending so much of its revenue on other ideas like Glasses and self-driving cars, not for PR purposes, although it does garner positive PR, but because getting 95% of you revenue from a single source is risky in the long term, and they are obviously trying to diversify. If you want to describe Google as an advertising company, go ahead, but that is a grossly under-descriptive term of what the company truly does, as poor a description as calling Amazon just a retail store.
jkn 14y ago
Search, mail and maps consume advertising in the same way that newspaper and magazine articles do. Or Facebook pages, or TV series. Roger Federer earns 85% of his revenue from advertising[1]. Other parts of his business (tennis playing) consumes advertising (displaying Nike logos on his clothes). What is the insight here? This tells something about how our economy works. It doesn't tell us much about the New York Times, Facebook, NBC, Roger Federer and Google. If you want to understand a company, you cannot limit yourself to a look at the sources of revenue. You have to go deeper and ask what makes it successful. Good newspaper articles. Good tennis play. Good web services and an open platform for mobile devices. [1] http://spakovas.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-10-highest-earning-athletes-of-2011.html http://spakovas.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-10-highest-earning-...

jan_g 14y ago

Yup, but you could say that for many IT companies. Why? Because most of them are getting money by utilizing advertising in one form or another. Is Twitter an advertising company? Is Facebook?

flyinRyan 14y ago
>Is Twitter an advertising company? Is Facebook? Are these serious questions? Of course they are. What else?
- jan_g 14y ago
  I'm questioning the need to constantly repeat the obvious. Just about every thread that smells of Google gets derailed by meta conversation about advertising. For what is worth, I still consider these companies to be heavily tech oriented, despite their source of revenue. They give bread and butter to people like me - developers. Whereas your run-of-the-mill traditional advertising company doesn't.
  - chii 14y ago
    banks are very heavily tech oriented (as in they use a lot of tech and also make their own tech). and yet you won't call a bank a tech orient ed company because a company's model determines the 'orientation', not what sort of tools they use. many people agree that Google is an advert company. it just that they are different from the traditional Madison avenue style ad company. no one is saying that being an ad company is bad. nor are they disallowed to invest in tech. but they are not like the old research institute like the old palo alto xerox style company.

cromwellian 14y ago

Is Apple a phone carrier not a consumer electronics company, since a huge chunk of their revenues come from carrier subsidies that lock consumers into multiyear contracts that obfuscate the true costs (e.g. $2200)? Google is spending so much of its revenue on other ideas like Glasses and self-driving cars, not for PR purposes, although it does garner positive PR, but because getting 95% of you revenue from a single source is risky in the long term, and they are obviously trying to diversify. If you want to describe Google as an advertising company, go ahead, but that is a grossly under-descriptive term of what the company truly does, as poor a description as calling Amazon just a retail store.

jkn 14y ago

Search, mail and maps consume advertising in the same way that newspaper and magazine articles do. Or Facebook pages, or TV series. Roger Federer earns 85% of his revenue from advertising[1]. Other parts of his business (tennis playing) consumes advertising (displaying Nike logos on his clothes). What is the insight here? This tells something about how our economy works. It doesn't tell us much about the New York Times, Facebook, NBC, Roger Federer and Google. If you want to understand a company, you cannot limit yourself to a look at the sources of revenue. You have to go deeper and ask what makes it successful. Good newspaper articles. Good tennis play. Good web services and an open platform for mobile devices. [1] http://spakovas.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-10-highest-earning-athletes-of-2011.html http://spakovas.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-10-highest-earning-...