5 ms·

Is Google the Wal-Mart of the web?

8 points by ritubpant 17y ago

known 17y ago
I think Google is the Advertising Company of the Web.
tumult 17y ago
No
mediaman 17y ago
Not very useful commentary. All they are saying is that like Wal-Mart, Google is big, which they have done by offering things people want. A much better comparison to Wal-Mart is Amazon, which at least is in a similar industry, engages with a similarly complex supply chain, and has a far more analogous business model.
joubert 17y ago
At least Google's customers don't get stampeded to death by peers as they enter the premises.
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
Some sloppy reasoning here: > For example, the newspaper industry is quickly crumbling - they lost $7.5 billion in ad revenue in 2008. The public gets irate at the mention of paying for online news. Traditional media and online media alike are based on advertising revenue, not on readers/viewers paying for the news. People won't pay for news online for the same reason they wouldn't pay for news on TV or even in print. Subscription charges for newspapers and magazines, like TV cable/satellite bills, pay for content distribution, not content creation. Given that readers/viewers already pay the distribution charges for their internet connection, they balk at paying again for the creation of content that they're long accustomed to getting for free.
HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
"No company can compete with free." I'm getting really tired of seeing this.
tybris 17y ago
No, Amazon is.
nathanb 17y ago
Let's see...they don't abuse their employees, they compete on quality, they frequently expand through acquisition rather than duplication, they're not known for exploiting third-world countries, and they appear at least mildly interested in being a good citizen in their community. So I'm going to go with "no".
crux 17y ago
Wal-Mart is despised and loathed because they have borderline-abusive policies towards their employees, because a Wal-Mart store has the capacity to completely disrupt the entire established ecosystem—that's been there for decades or more—of a community, and because they contribute to a leveling-out of cultural diversity in favor of a single lowest-common-denominator monoculture. None of these things are true about Google.

8 points by ritubpant 17y ago

known 17y ago

I think Google is the Advertising Company of the Web.

tumult 17y ago

mediaman 17y ago

Not very useful commentary. All they are saying is that like Wal-Mart, Google is big, which they have done by offering things people want. A much better comparison to Wal-Mart is Amazon, which at least is in a similar industry, engages with a similarly complex supply chain, and has a far more analogous business model.

joubert 17y ago

At least Google's customers don't get stampeded to death by peers as they enter the premises.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

Some sloppy reasoning here: > For example, the newspaper industry is quickly crumbling - they lost $7.5 billion in ad revenue in 2008. The public gets irate at the mention of paying for online news. Traditional media and online media alike are based on advertising revenue, not on readers/viewers paying for the news. People won't pay for news online for the same reason they wouldn't pay for news on TV or even in print. Subscription charges for newspapers and magazines, like TV cable/satellite bills, pay for content distribution, not content creation. Given that readers/viewers already pay the distribution charges for their internet connection, they balk at paying again for the creation of content that they're long accustomed to getting for free.

HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago

"No company can compete with free." I'm getting really tired of seeing this.

tybris 17y ago

No, Amazon is.

nathanb 17y ago

Let's see...they don't abuse their employees, they compete on quality, they frequently expand through acquisition rather than duplication, they're not known for exploiting third-world countries, and they appear at least mildly interested in being a good citizen in their community. So I'm going to go with "no".

crux 17y ago

Wal-Mart is despised and loathed because they have borderline-abusive policies towards their employees, because a Wal-Mart store has the capacity to completely disrupt the entire established ecosystem—that's been there for decades or more—of a community, and because they contribute to a leveling-out of cultural diversity in favor of a single lowest-common-denominator monoculture. None of these things are true about Google.