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Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

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Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#51
post #9

I thought that this earnings announcement would be the first one where we'd see some impact from competitive knowledge engines, e.g. Perplexity, You.com, ChatGPT + Bing, etc., but Google still grew search $6B/15%. This is impressive both because it's hard to keep such a big business growing at that rate and because essentially everyone in my social circle has moved on from going to Google first for information. I gue…

I think this is the same thing I feel when I read Meta's earnings. I continue to see growth in usage of their core properties but I don't think my entire circle touches Facebook or even Instagram nearly as much. Whatsapp certainly isn't driving those ad dollars so it truly is remarkable how disconnected my demographic (loosely using my here) is from the overall world usage.

The world is much larger than the bubble we live in.

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#52
post #9

I thought that this earnings announcement would be the first one where we'd see some impact from competitive knowledge engines, e.g. Perplexity, You.com, ChatGPT + Bing, etc., but Google still grew search $6B/15%. This is impressive both because it's hard to keep such a big business growing at that rate and because essentially everyone in my social circle has moved on from going to Google first for information. I gue…

The layoffs and dividend are related -- the company's death rattle has been shaking a while now. Management is desperate to retain the confidence of the investor class.

I think most companies would love to being "dying" like Google "is". Seriously, Google is not dying and making obviously false claims is not helpful.

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#53
post #9

I thought that this earnings announcement would be the first one where we'd see some impact from competitive knowledge engines, e.g. Perplexity, You.com, ChatGPT + Bing, etc., but Google still grew search $6B/15%. This is impressive both because it's hard to keep such a big business growing at that rate and because essentially everyone in my social circle has moved on from going to Google first for information. I gue…

> essentially everyone in my social circle has moved on from going to Google first for information. I guess our demographic is not predictive of the larger market.

"Google is dead, no one goes there anymore" is one of the most tired takes I see frequently on HN. It's nice to hear someone express the self-awareness to realize that what they see in their immediate circle is not representative of reality.

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#54
post #9

I thought that this earnings announcement would be the first one where we'd see some impact from competitive knowledge engines, e.g. Perplexity, You.com, ChatGPT + Bing, etc., but Google still grew search $6B/15%. This is impressive both because it's hard to keep such a big business growing at that rate and because essentially everyone in my social circle has moved on from going to Google first for information. I gue…

The layoffs and dividend are related -- the company's death rattle has been shaking a while now. Management is desperate to retain the confidence of the investor class.

Top 5 most valuable company on earth

Massive YoY growth

Massive cash horde, buybacks, dividends

Target of endless legal actions due to market dominance

"death rattle"

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citations needed there buddy

No, not really. The decline of Google's search performance is on the front page of HN at least once a week. It's common knowledge at this point. Try Kagi if you want to be reminded of what good search is like.

On what metrics of search quality is Kagi "orders of magnitude" better than Google?

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#57
post #10

Interesting that they think they're out of internal projects and acquisitions to (profitably) spend money on. Even more interesting that the stock seems to agree -- I guess investors already believed that growth is over, and are seeing this recognition of that as an alignment between reality and internal strategy.

The only major investment left would be computing infrastructures, but it's severely limited by supply. Even if Google wants to spend more money, simply there's no chips to buy. I don't see any significant future investment opportunities other than Waymo in the foreseeable future, but it seems still far from scaling out.

There is a $6B increase in purchase of properties and equipment vs. 23Q1.

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#58

Fascinating that they’re issuing a dividend. Can’t find anything better to do to drive growth?

I’m a Googler who doesn’t do anything remotely close to setting capital return policy. Just remember Alphabet has been buying back 10s of billions for a while. Dividends are just a different capital return mechanism.

Re: Google Earning Q1 2024 [pdf]

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site has always been a bubble.

Agreed. Reddit is a bubble too if you take note of the viewpoints there, but that reaches a wider variety of folks. Imagine how much of a bubble HN is.

HN is a bubble where people listen to what you say even if you argue against them, I haven't found any such place anywhere else before. I've found some people who listen even to people they disagree with on some niche forums, but never a community as big as this with density this high.

Other than listening and arguing in relatively good faith I don't think HN is a bubble, although such people probably have pretty different opinions than the typical person simply because they listen and change themselves more so it gets more refined.

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