Because they don’t just kill the services. In some cases, they cannibalize apps/services and add features to other comparable projects. Inbox’s labels and snooze made their way into Gmail. A handful of Allo features are now in Meets and Messages. So on and so forth.
Why google son't sells products instead of killing them?
Submitted 1 year ago by small44@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
dmonzel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Gmail had labels well before Inbox. They threw away the useful part of Inbox, which was the automagical organization.
dmonzel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think I meant categories/groups/bundles and not labels. The “Primary” “Promotion” “Updates” tabs.
fubo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Sometimes they do; e.g. Google Domains was recently sold to Squarespace.
kakes@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Iirc this was prompted by regulation, not an actual desire to sell.
pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And that was the catalyst for me to move to a different registrar.
QubaXR@lemmy.world 1 year ago
A big part of it is corporations simply eliminating competition. Instead of improving, buy them out, scrape them for parts and then dissolve.
We must not forget another factor though: A lot of these apps, companies and studios are built on a startup model. They were never designed to be profitable or even economically sustainable. Their entire goal was to create a flashy product with positive user experience and then to get bought by a bigger company. That’s the cash-out time, and most of startups don’t really plan for anything afterwards.
You get bought, you do your time (1-2 years of continued service for the new owners) and then cash out, break loose and either retire or go fund another startup.
There are some cases, like game studio Bungie, where the company itself had vision beyond selling out and after being bought by Microsoft and not loving it - bought itself OUT and then continued its existence (until being bought by Sony). Most of startups don’t think that far, and the product they truly build is not an app or a service but simply stockholder value. They make the buyer’s stock go up when they get acquired and get paid for that.
It’s kinda sad to see for someone like me who was brought up with the ideals of building things that last and creating your own legacy, but that’s today’s startup-driven innovation economy.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
They don’t really make these sorts of services to be sold off. I imagine that most services are very embedded in Google’s servers and systems.
Also, a lot of these services are loss leaders that Google hasn’t figured out how to monetize. I can’t imagine that another company would want to put together a bid to purchase.
someguy3@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Then they introduce competitors to them.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Because the revenue they expect to get from the product will likely not cover the cost of the operations.
TL;DR money.
Kissaki@feddit.de 1 year ago
They’re integrated in-house products. To get them into a sellable state would require additional effort that’s just not worth it to them.
Veraticus@lib.lgbt 1 year ago
What
small44@lemmy.world 1 year ago
killedbygoogle.com Why they don’t sell some of them?
slazer2au@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They do. Google domains got split and sold before being shut.
The reason they dont do it for more is likely they cannot find buyers because the products don’t have a path to monetization to justify a purchase from a VC.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Because Dennis is a bastard man !
Carobu@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Google wave was sold off too, they absolutely do sell some things, just they prefer to take features and ideas to use in other products.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Who bought it?
Technofrood@feddit.uk 1 year ago
Don’t think it got sold off but Apache got it, it’s since been discontinued again after not much work.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
- Because their products are made to work with their infrastructure, their frameworks, their internal systems. Just making the software for Google Wave run on some independent server would be a big job.
- Selling the software without the team that maintains it is a bad deal. It’s really hard to just read a huge pile of code and figure out how to work with it. When Google acquires a product, they usually acquire the team also.
- Who would buy a product that Google has decided isn’t worth it? New Google products launch with lots of free promotion from Google, including integration into their other products. If Google can’t make it work even with all that, how can someone smaller hope to make it work independently?
DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 1 year ago
My take/assumption is that Google’s projects are “free” so they can mine your metadata and sell advertising.
That’s their core business model.
So, once the cost of maintaining a product outweighs the revenue made from mining your data and selling advertising, the product gets shutdown.
dan1101@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They buy their competition and use the parts they want and discard the rest. Sort of like how EA and Microsoft operate. They kill things even if they are profitable, because to a multi-billion dollar company a little profit is not enough, it needs to be wildly profitable or they move on.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Because continuous growth each quarter is totally sustainable long term!