One thing I don’t understand about this situation is that they took what was almost certainly a profitable service and abandoned it. Meanwhile, they have services like Gmail and Maps which can’t be profitable, in my opinion, and just shove resources at them. They’re way too set on user data and advertising. It’s a shame
they took what was almost certainly a profitable service and abandoned it
They oftentimes make a decision like this when their internal math tells them that the resources they put into domains could make them more money if they were put in another product. If you consider the opportunity cost, it could make sense to Google to make a change like this.
From our perspective, it’s crazy, but it’s easy to forget the huge scale of the money they are dealing with.
services like Gmail and Maps which can’t be profitable
They aren’t profitable, neither is Photos, but they are considered essential applications that keep users bought into the google ecosystem and are necessary for android to remain competitive.
Using that argument, domains could be used to upsell customers. Oh you want a domain? You know what? We’lll give you a year of gmail business (whatever that’s called) for half the price! Or maybe you fancy a 100$ Cloud Services voucher?
I imagine gmail and maps provides good data on user preferences and activities, which is perfect data for advertisers. Track where they go and who they communicate with.
One thing I don’t understand about this situation is that they took what was almost certainly a profitable service and abandoned it. Meanwhile, they have services like Gmail and Maps which can’t be profitable, in my opinion, and just shove resources at them. They’re way too set on user data and advertising. It’s a shame
They oftentimes make a decision like this when their internal math tells them that the resources they put into domains could make them more money if they were put in another product. If you consider the opportunity cost, it could make sense to Google to make a change like this.
From our perspective, it’s crazy, but it’s easy to forget the huge scale of the money they are dealing with.
They aren’t profitable, neither is Photos, but they are considered essential applications that keep users bought into the google ecosystem and are necessary for android to remain competitive.
Using that argument, domains could be used to upsell customers. Oh you want a domain? You know what? We’lll give you a year of gmail business (whatever that’s called) for half the price! Or maybe you fancy a 100$ Cloud Services voucher?
That way you can lock in customers.
I imagine gmail and maps provides good data on user preferences and activities, which is perfect data for advertisers. Track where they go and who they communicate with.