$800M to support small businesses and crisis response • Hacker News Board

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#21

Post by rsweeney21 » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

throwaway_USD wrote: post #19

treyfitty wrote: post #3

Google is helping small businesses by providing Ad credits? Of all things a small business may need, Google thinks Ads are the solution? The response to this crisis has my cynicism and disdain for our system growing every day.

>Google thinks Ads are the solution? No, they see their Ad sales declining, so they are trying to stimulate their own business with this act. "Grants" to new customers so they hopefully become buying customers in the future; loans (nothing like becoming a lender in this economy); and of course grants/loans will just bid up ad prices on existing customers. Not to mention all the major business just highjacked $5.75T f…

The grants are for existing customers, not new customers.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#22

Post by throwaway_USD » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #6

thedance wrote: post #2

It's ridiculous that Google has to front a glove and mask company the working capital and donate the product to the CDC. That's what the government is supposed to do. The federal government should be providing interest-free working capital and guaranteeing the sale of every glove and mask anyone can produce.

>It's ridiculous that Google has to It doesn't have to. This is a choice Google is making on how it wants to conduct charity. >The federal government should be providing interest-free working capital and guaranteeing the sale of every glove and mask Sale at what price? It has to be bounded or else it sounds ripe for fraud (people are monsters). > anyone can produce. So is the loan for anyone that wants it? Or just fo…

>This is a choice Google is making on how it wants to conduct charity.

Maybe they should choose not to maximize tax avoidance instead.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#23

Post by compiler-guy » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

throwaway_USD wrote: post #19

treyfitty wrote: post #3

Google is helping small businesses by providing Ad credits? Of all things a small business may need, Google thinks Ads are the solution? The response to this crisis has my cynicism and disdain for our system growing every day.

>Google thinks Ads are the solution? No, they see their Ad sales declining, so they are trying to stimulate their own business with this act. "Grants" to new customers so they hopefully become buying customers in the future; loans (nothing like becoming a lender in this economy); and of course grants/loans will just bid up ad prices on existing customers. Not to mention all the major business just highjacked $5.75T f…

Grants are only going to customers with an active account in the previous year. So this does not drive new customers to the platform. If anything, it makes adwords less attractive, because new customers without grants would be competing against old customers with grants.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#24

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

heinrichhartman wrote: post #20

This is NOT funding : - $250 million in ad grants ... - $340 million in Google Ads credits ... - A pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits ... A company that has a Bazillion $ in the bank, has means to really make a difference. This is not. Edit/Clarification: The original title was: "$800M funding and grants to support ..". Now they changed it. I take issue with the claim of providing funding, and all they offer…

Why does a company with a Bazillion dollars in the bank need to be a charity? If we agree that's the case, we should tax companies more. If not, what's the problem?

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#25

Post by hienyimba » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

If Google wants to help small businesses, they should start by stopping their practice of defrauding it's Adsense publishers.

$30k MRR gone overnight alongside $40k already earned in Adsense income siezed by Google. All this happened early this month of March, effectively crippling our ability to take care of employees and survive the Covid-19 crisis.

Such hypocrisy.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#26

Post by treyfitty » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

compiler-guy wrote: post #10

treyfitty wrote: post #3

Google is helping small businesses by providing Ad credits? Of all things a small business may need, Google thinks Ads are the solution? The response to this crisis has my cynicism and disdain for our system growing every day.

Yes, when the time comes, (but only when the time comes), small business are going to need to tell their customers that they are back and available. Ad spend is a major expense for small businesses like restaurants and small boutiques, and not having that expense will be a big help to getting these companies operating again. But Google is doing a lot more beyond that: "A $200 million investment fund that will support…

There’s something called the advertisers dilemma (akin to the prisoners dilemma) for a reason- game theory suggests advertising has become de facto necessary only because other parties do it. In other words, small businesses would choose NOT to advertise if they all cooperated and chose not to.

And I owned a restaurant. Restaurants, by and large, do not advertise on Google Search. If they do, it’s a small fraction of their ad spend. There are many ways to get the message across, like actually being good and having a connection with recurring customers.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#27

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

treyfitty wrote: post #3

Google is helping small businesses by providing Ad credits? Of all things a small business may need, Google thinks Ads are the solution? The response to this crisis has my cynicism and disdain for our system growing every day.

Any accountants here?

Isn't this just an accounting trick? They're going to lose revenue. But can't they now issue this "grant", and then pretend they aren't losing revenue -- they're just issuing a grant?

Or is that not how it works? I don't know, but would like to know.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#28

Post by throwaway_USD » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

tinalumfoil wrote: post #15

thedance wrote: post #2

It's ridiculous that Google has to front a glove and mask company the working capital and donate the product to the CDC. That's what the government is supposed to do. The federal government should be providing interest-free working capital and guaranteeing the sale of every glove and mask anyone can produce.

The House just passed a two trillion dollar relief bill. That's almost 3 times the entire value of alphabet. And much of that's going to obtaining medical supplies. What are you talking about?

>The House just passed a two trillion dollar relief bill.

My understanding is it is $6T, with $4T going to the Fed so the bankers can make money with it...

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#29

Post by ocdtrekkie » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:58 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #9

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all you have is a hammer... Realistically, apart from G Suite access for remote work, they don't actually have much to offer. That being said, Google ad spend is a huge chunk of marketing budgets, so it probably will help the overall bottom line of these businesses a fair bit.

And GSuite limits for several services have already been lifted to Enterprise levels for all accounts in the previous week.

Indeed. That's been pretty common industry-wide for online collaboration and conferencing tools.

Re: $800M to support small businesses and crisis response

#30

Post by judge2020 » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 5:59 PM UTC

hienyimba wrote: post #25

If Google wants to help small businesses, they should start by stopping their practice of defrauding it's Adsense publishers. $30k MRR gone overnight alongside $40k already earned in Adsense income siezed by Google. All this happened early this month of March, effectively crippling our ability to take care of employees and survive the Covid-19 crisis. Such hypocrisy.

In an attempt to cut its own cost, Google effectively automates everything, even in terms of detecting abuse (eg. clickjacking or click fraud) and advertisements that go against their rules (I think even in terms of mentioning Covid-19 in ads since I haven't seen any ads mentioning anything about "virus"/"covid"/etc at all this month). I wouldn't doubt you got hit by this automated system.

Maybe you should write a blog on this.