• sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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        3 months ago

        Yes right. But what does the investor environment look like today? Profit, not users, is what everyone is counting. If Google says “we’re burning cash in all businesses but search, but hey we’re nice”, investors will take their investments to more profitable businesses.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          They actually have a pretty huge net profit margin and what basically amounts to a monopoly on advertisement, so even if their ads reached less intended targets it wouldn’t hurt their bottom line much.

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Google is operating at a 24% net profit margin. They don’t need to get their shareholders more money…

      • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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        3 months ago

        Do you actually understand how this works? It’s a beautiful statement and oh so noble, but it just flies against how the world really works.

        At some point, maybe not today, but at some point, you’re going to be saving up for your retirement. Your money will be invested; either passively or actively. If active, a fund manager (or maybe even yourself) will be spending time, every single day, wondering how to maximise the invested cash. If passive, you’re letting a WHOLE lot of fund managers make the decisions for you (wisdom of the crowd). Either way, Google better fucking perform or the investors will go elsewhere.

        And you’ll be an investor too, asking for Google to do better than anyone else or you’ll take your savings elsewhere.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          If investors go elsewhere then they’re trading for a higher risk and return ratio than a massive company with rich history like Google. Plus, it frequently performs large buybacks and offers, and even offered a dividend recently. There is always going to be something attractive to investors, here.