$800M to support small businesses and crisis response

Reading the announcement is somewhat sobering though.

Most of it (590 million) are ad "credits" or "grants". Keep in mind that Google ad revenue in 2019 was 134 billion.

> $250 million in ad grants to help the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies globally provide critical information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other measures to help local communities.

It seems odd to me that institutions are supposed to resort to advertising to be shown above all the false, misleading and inaccurate information.

Is the WHO supposed to have a marketing team optimizing ad spending on Google during a pandemic to rank higher than inferior sources?

There ought the be ranking mechanisms or other side channels to keep important information on top in case of a crisis.

This is like fixing a leaking pipe by forcing in water from the outside.

Edit: apparently all ads relating to Coronavirus have been blocked. See below.

--- Small beneficial side effect: for Google: this drives up the prices a bit for pharma and other companies trying to profit with Corona related topics.

> $340 million in Google Ads credits available to all SMBs with active accounts over the past year.

This sounds decent at first, but also seems more like a token gift on further thought.

I reckon the goal here is mainly to avoid losing those customers. Many SMBs are closed, struggling, and will reduce expenses where possible. Marketing is often the easiest to cut right away, and many of those might not return anytime soon.

The hardest hit businesses are those that had to close down (restaurants, shops, etc). They won't be spending money now.

While a small, free marketing budget is good to have , it will also help stabilize/raise prizes more quickly once everything opens again.

This way they keep those customers at least somewhat engaged and can also prop up the numbers a bit.

> A $200 million investment fund that will support NGOs and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital.

This is certainly the most impactful. Assuming 70% of that money reaches businesses, it could amount in 14_000 loans of 10_000 each.

I'd assume those to be loans though, so the fund probably won't be much of a loss in the medium term.

If I was in the US now, my company and staff would qualify for a large number of help avenues, not to even speak of grants for our work on COVID 19. Over here? The AWS bill we pay monthly has doubled...because our currency has fallen that much. I won't meet payroll on Monday because clients have paused their work and payments to us...etc

Meanwhile here is all manner of funds seemingly available but just another new extra requirement out of reach.

As usual, the beneficiaries will be larger orgs and their army of consultants and friends.

I think we should stop giving them a pass. If they can spend billions on fines, it's possible that they could afford to spend a comparable amount to help people and save lives. Don't you find it insulting that the bulk of the support package is ad credits?

> Google seems promoting the following link in their top page

Only if you search for coronavirus tips and related terms, that is nowhere near the massive marketing campaign Google could pull off across their network to bring vital information to the public.