Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 784 posts

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#451

Post by pbhjpbhj »

keepper wrote: post #153
scarface74 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone stated below, YouTube is still not profitable. Waze is really not adding to their bottom line, and DoubleClick was to increase their advertising reach. It’s really not analogous to their hardware acquisitions.

"as someone stated"... Google has never released Youtube numbers, so I can't say that. I will tell you that youtube is the dominant video platform on the internet. You do realize Youtube shows ads? and those ads are part of google's ad revenue? But the numbers have been inferred "YouTube probably generates $16 billion to $25 billion in annual revenue"[1] Waze drives all of their google maps traffic data. Again, indus…

>Google has never released Youtube numbers //

Can't you just log on to the appropriate USA government website and download the submitted and audited accounts?

Isn't USA supposed to be a bastion of capitalism, and isn't a central feature of capitalism that it optimises the distribution of resources, that optimisation being predicated on readily available information -- the system doesn't optimise at all without information flow.

Please don't tell me Google don't have public accounts???

There shouldn't be any mystery here, you should just be able to read it off the P&L sheets?

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#452

Post by dgacmu »

taurath wrote: post #441
cletus wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, no. I find this whole "they're selling your data" trope to be trite and just annoying at this point. I actually expect this more a reaction to Apple's pivot into health with the Apple Watch (people seem to forget the ex-Burberry CEO positioned the Apple Watch 1 as a luxury product--anyone remember the Apple Watch Edition for $10k?--health came later).

Right, but they’re not going to make money off the hardware, it’s going to be the services and ad targeting based off of the data. You think chromecast is to make a profit?

This is a continuation of the trite bit. What's missing is recognizing that Alphabet (not Google) is very focused on diversifying its revenue stream beyond search advertising, ideally in a way that takes advantage of the things it's already good at.

GCP is a good example. No search. No ads. No using of customer data. Just a desire for a really big potential revenue stream that builds on Google's expertise in managing huge numbers of servers and services.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#453

Post by fesoliveira »

dev_throw wrote: post #286
tomComb wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been getting the same impression. It's the sort of thing that can happen when a company is on hard times and cutting corners perhaps. Glad to see them purchased by a company with deep pockets and a real interest in making Fitbit a success.

Unfortunately Google is known for its terrible customer support and sunsetting services early. It could go either way.

Why is Google know for its terrible customer support? I have had great experiences with their support analysts in the past, specially concerning Nexus/Pixel devices and Google admin accounts. I never had to wait more than a few minutes to talk to someone and they are always polite and tried to help as much as they can, but this is all anecdotal.

Could you give me examples of their poor customer support? I know that they are not so great with developers who publish stuff on Play Store and the likes, but never heard of them being bad with paying customers.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#454

Post by impendia »

cletus wrote: post #409
taurath wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t care about the product in so much as they care about the avenue to suck up more data, no?

Actually, no. I find this whole "they're selling your data" trope to be trite and just annoying at this point. I actually expect this more a reaction to Apple's pivot into health with the Apple Watch (people seem to forget the ex-Burberry CEO positioned the Apple Watch 1 as a luxury product--anyone remember the Apple Watch Edition for $10k?--health came later).

> I find this whole "they're selling your data" trope to be trite and just annoying at this point.

Do you believe it to be mistaken? Or true, but not worth caring about?

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#455

Post by kevincrane »

If you want to try to keep your health data away from Google:

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1285

> Within 30-90 days: Most of your personal account info is deleted within 30 days of when you confirm your deletion request. This includes any subscriptions you have, like for Fitbit Coach. It may take up to 90 days to delete all of your personal info, like the data recorded by your Fitbit device and other data stored in our backup systems. This is due to the size and complexity of the systems we use to store data.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#457

Post by pbhjpbhj »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #438
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're actually a new engineer you might want to check your company policy on communicating details of internal systems in public; your external communications people probably don't allow you to speak about such things ... on the other hand, if you are allowed to talk about such things then you're probably just a persona adopted by someone in external comms. Take care!

It's not a trade secret that we store data. I'm not giving away anything that isn't already public information. This is literally me giving a summary of our Terms of Use. As far as I know, I'm allowed to say that: people I work with tend to be liberal. As far I know, I'm also allowed to say that: people I work with tend to view data as a liability not an asset. It's also public information that Google receives billio…

Upthread you appeared to be making definite statements about exactly what information Google shares, you also mention working for the company which suggests you're speaking authoritatively and in a way that is endorsed by the company (and that's why external comms people don't like it).

A couple of actionable statements

- you don't store anything for more than 30 days (that doesn't mesh with analytics data which might be de-anonymisable IMO).

- you don't do any facial tracking. Which doesn't surprise me too much but I can imagine a future trial where a barrister is saying "your engineers claimed in public you didn't do this sort of tracking" and that providing extras jeopardy for damages.

It's not my area, however, I appreciate the openness. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#458

Post by jvagner »

kerng wrote: post #46

Vic Gundotra (VP Google) said back when Microsoft bought Nokia that "two turkeys don't make an eagle". Google officially has become the Microosft of the mid 2000s. Lack of direction and innovation, buying up companies just for the sake of it. Here is a link to Google's anology: https://www.techspot.com/news/42338-google-attacks-nokia-and...

The company that can't even put the right sized batteries in their latest mobile product probably can't spin this purchase into gold.

Some of what they struggle with shouldn't be as hard as they seem to make it...

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#459

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

falcolas wrote: post #41
jpm_sd wrote: post #31

https://news.yahoo.com/google-acquiring-fitbit-130619853.htm... "Google has struggled to make much of a dent in the wearables category..." "Fitbit, meanwhile, has had issues maintaining growth in recent years." Failure + failure = success?

A large established and (based on personal connections) loyal fan base is a failure? Growth is not everything. Growth isn’t even really sustainable over a long enough time span, and Fitbit’s been around awhile.

Also just because something isn't #1, that doesn't mean it's a bad acquisition. I don't know enough about the details of this to comment, but just because FitBit isn't the biggest thing in wearables doesn't mean it's a stupid acquisition target.

If Apple wanted to sell the Apple Watch for $2 Trillion dollars, that would obviously be a terrible acquisition. If Google bought FitBit for $2000, that would obviously be an awesome acquisition.

Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B

#460

Post by filoleg »

volkk wrote: post #375
stickfigure wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just one year? That's a brief stint to learn a lot of valuable lessons about organizational behavior. And you probably have some great stories. It's easy to spend 3-5 years at a startup that implodes. One year is failing fast, and at least you got paid the whole time!

i rounded down, it was actually 1.5 years, but the stories i have are downright comical and belong in the silicon valley HBO show

if it isn't too much effort, can you briefly jot down a few of your favorite ones? Just like, I bet, quite a few other people here, I am actually very curious to hear some of those.
Post reply on HN