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863 points IdealeZahlen | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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xhkkffbf ◴[] No.43718084[source]
Google really should start floating some plans for splitting itself up. Things worked out pretty well when Ma Bell was split up. Some people thought it would all fail, but the companies have done a good job competing and cooperating at the right times.

If Google comes up with the plans, it's better than some antagonist.

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adgjlsfhk1 ◴[] No.43718240[source]
Google seems harder to split up than Bell to me. Bell was split regionally which makes sense since each region has it's own wires and can make money separately. Google has the problem that all their products other than adds lose money (or make money through integration with Google adds)
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1. bdcravens ◴[] No.43718699[source]
That's a business model problem then.

Any other business burying money into various endeavors would have to cut losses at some point, which underscores the point of an unfair monopoly.

Google isn't operating at a loss in all products. About 12% of revenue is cloud; about 12% is everything else. Their business apps is estimated to be a billion-dollar business on its own. Cloud is profitable, and earns probably 1.5-3 billion dollars a year in profit.

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2. Jensson ◴[] No.43719335[source]
> Any other business burying money into various endeavors would have to cut losses at some point

Google has a massive graveyard full of killed projects, they are cutting their losses, few companies cut as much as they do:

https://killedbygoogle.com/

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3. bdcravens ◴[] No.43720513[source]
While at first glance this may disprove the idea that they don't cut losses, it actually furthers the argument that advertising revenue creates perverted incentives, since they blew massive amounts of money on projects with no financial value. Moreover, while those products are dead, the data gained likely made its way into the advertising information flow. If you were a competitor to one of those dead products, or an advertising company that has to carefully evaluate the cost effectiveness of an auxiliary product, Google has an "unfair" advantage over you.