谷歌有了新“媽媽”,可它暫時(shí)還得靠“兒子”來(lái)養(yǎng)活
????誰(shuí)說(shuō)8月是新聞淡季?美國(guó)時(shí)間周一(8月10日)下午,谷歌意外宣布了讓人匪夷所思的公司重組。這家經(jīng)營(yíng)搜索引擎起家的科技巨頭將更名為Alphabet,中文直譯為“字母表”。 ????作為重組的一部分,谷歌的廣告業(yè)務(wù)會(huì)成為母公司“字母表”旗下?lián)碛胁⑦\(yùn)營(yíng)的眾多公司之一其他“字母表”經(jīng)營(yíng)的業(yè)務(wù)包括谷歌的寬帶服務(wù)Fiber、谷歌收購(gòu)的智能家居公司Nest、谷歌的神秘實(shí)驗(yàn)室Google X、兩年前谷歌成立的健康研究公司Calico、谷歌的兩家投資機(jī)構(gòu)Google Ventures與Google Capital。 ????谷歌這么做是在昭告世人,它已經(jīng)成長(zhǎng)壯大,再不是當(dāng)初那款同名的搜索引擎產(chǎn)品,也不只是后來(lái)搜索引擎孕育的那個(gè)廣告帝國(guó)。Alphabet集眾多業(yè)務(wù)于一身,會(huì)給予原來(lái)谷歌名下各類最新奇、瘋狂的項(xiàng)目——無(wú)人駕駛汽車、有助于防治糖尿病的隱形眼鏡、智能調(diào)溫器、無(wú)人機(jī)快遞服務(wù)、機(jī)器人——同等的重視。谷歌絕不僅是搜索引擎。現(xiàn)在,新公司的名字體現(xiàn)了這點(diǎn)。 ????不過(guò)還有個(gè)問(wèn)題。與谷歌發(fā)家業(yè)務(wù)一脈相承的廣告業(yè)務(wù)還要為上述所有商業(yè)探索買單。 ????搜索引擎廣告是谷歌最初躋身《財(cái)富》美國(guó)500強(qiáng)前50名的功臣(排名第40位)。實(shí)質(zhì)上,廣告業(yè)務(wù)堪比谷歌的印鈔機(jī)。谷歌去年89%的營(yíng)業(yè)收入來(lái)自廣告,其中包括展示性廣告和移動(dòng)端廣告。因此,即使為鐘愛的新奇探索豪擲千金,谷歌的利潤(rùn)率也高達(dá)24%。 ????谷歌的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官拉里·佩奇在公開發(fā)表的博客中介紹,在Alphabet內(nèi)部,“瘦身”的新谷歌會(huì)保留所有廣告支持的產(chǎn)品,旗下業(yè)務(wù)有搜索、廣告、地圖、應(yīng)用、安卓操作系統(tǒng)及相關(guān)的技術(shù)基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施。視頻網(wǎng)站YouTube的業(yè)務(wù)與橫幅廣告或者搜索引擎廣告截然不同,但它還隸屬谷歌。 ????然而,廣告可不是很酷的生意。廣告不會(huì)讓工程師感到興奮,那些由程序化的算法驅(qū)動(dòng)的廣告尤其如此。有一位年輕的工程師曾經(jīng)這樣揶揄谷歌的核心業(yè)務(wù):我這代人中最優(yōu)秀的人才考慮的都是如何吸引用戶點(diǎn)擊廣告,真遜斃了。這段話廣為流傳。對(duì)于那些奇思妙想的項(xiàng)目,谷歌鄭重其事投入,令人欽佩。但許多人猜測(cè),這些也不過(guò)是谷歌吸引天真的年輕工程師的招募工具。 ????在佩奇和Alphabet的總裁、谷歌另一位創(chuàng)始人謝爾蓋·布林的眼中,這家公司可能不僅僅是龐大的廣告機(jī)器。他們也許希望谷歌新的企業(yè)形象體現(xiàn)這點(diǎn)。很遺憾,財(cái)務(wù)數(shù)據(jù)沒(méi)有讓他們得償所愿。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) ????譯者:Pessy ????校對(duì):詹妮 |
????Who says news is slow in August? On Monday afternoon Google GOOG 4.05% announced a bizarre and surprising reorganization, in which the search engine company has renamed itself “Alphabet.” ????As part of the reorganization, Google, the advertising business, will be one among many businesses owned and operated by Alphabet. The other businesses include Google’s broadband business, Fiber, Nest, Google X, Calico and Google’s investment arms, Google Ventures and Google Capital. ????It’s Google’s way of telling the world that it has outgrown its initial, namesake product, the Google search engine, which in turn begat an advertising behemoth. Alphabet, with its portfolio of activities, lends equal weight to all of the company formerly known as Google’s most out-there moonshot activities. The self-driving cars, the diabetes contact lenses, the smart thermostats, the drone delivery, the robots. Google is more than just a search engine. Now, its name reflects that. ????There’s just one problem with that. Advertising, Google’s original line of business is still paying for it all. ????Search advertising is why Google is a Fortune 50 powerhouse to begin with. (It is number 40 on Fortune’s recently published list.) Google’s ad business practically prints money. Advertising, including display ads and mobile ads, made up 89% of Google’s $66 billion in revenue last year. Even while spending gobs of money on its beloved moonshots, the company enjoyed 24% profit margins. ????Within Alphabet, the new “slimmed-down” (CEO Larry Page’s phrasing in a public blog post) Google will still retain all of its ad-supported products, including search, ads, maps, apps, Android, and the related technical infrastructure. Even video network YouTube, which is a very different business from banner ads or search ads, will stay under the Google segment. ????But advertising is not very cool. Advertising, especially programmatic, algorithm-driven advertising, doesn’t exactly get engineers excited. There’s even a famous quote from a young engineer, deriding Google’s core business: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.” Plenty of people have speculated that Google’s moonshots, while sincere and admirable, are also a cynical recruiting device for wide-eyed young engineers. ????It’s likely that Page and Sergey Brin, his Google co-founder and Alphabet president, see their company as more than a massive advertising machine. They probably wanted Google’s corporate identity to reflect that. Too bad the numbers don’t. |
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