For the simple minded among us, can someone explain why this would be worth 34.5 billion dollars? Wouldn't the fork (https://www.perplexity.ai/comet) be sufficient?
Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
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Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#22If there was any company that I would trust less with a web browser (and related user data) than an ad-tech company, it would be an AI company.
A social media ad company would be the least favourable. At least Google's central ad business is based off of search queries the user gives to them willingly for value.
I think google amasses far more information via website analytics, Gmail and SSO (Log in with Google) than "willingly"-input search queries.
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#23Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#24Why would they pay so much money for Chrome? They could just fork chromium for free? 34B is just for web address?
I'm guessing the installed user base make up the bulk of the value.
After selling Chrome to Perplexity, Google could just announce the end of life for Google Chrome, without an upgrade path. Then it's up to Perplexity to get these users to install Perplexity Chrome.
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#25Why would they pay so much money for Chrome? They could just fork chromium for free? 34B is just for web address?
For the users, via the Chrome brand, and via being pre-installed on Chromebooks and Android. By far most users run Chrome, not Chromium forks, and this would continue after a competent acquisition.
Whoever owns Chrome decides exactly what software most users run for web browsing, decides future web standards in practice, decides which kinds of extensions most users can use, decides the limits and carve-outs of adblockers, codecs and web features, has all the telemetry, and in future decides what AI-driven "presentational" modifications to web pages will be done, and what semantic scraping and uploading will happen automatically in the browser.
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#26This is not a serious offer. Even if it was, is a low-ball one for a browser like Chrome. (Why did they choose that figure given they know they don't have the money). Also they do not have anywhere close to having the money or stock value to buy it. So this is just for attention grabbing for the headlines. Move along now, nothing to see here.
I think they are offering $10 per user given that 3.45 billion is a widely reported user estimate.
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#27[deleted]
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#28These marketing stunts from Perplexity made me stop using their product. For me, it's an indicator that they don't believe in their product, so there's no reason for me to do it either.
Which web search do you prefer over perplexity?
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#29For the simple minded among us, can someone explain why this would be worth 34.5 billion dollars? Wouldn't the fork ( https://www.perplexity.ai/comet ) be sufficient?
At an estimated 3.45 billion Chrome users across virtually all platforms, that places the value of a Chrome user at $10.
Anyone can fork a browser (and many unqualified or underfunded teams do), but acquiring control of the primary surface for Internet access of nearly half the planet? $34.5B seems pretty cheap.
Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
#30For the simple minded among us, can someone explain why this would be worth 34.5 billion dollars? Wouldn't the fork ( https://www.perplexity.ai/comet ) be sufficient?
Chrome has a slightly higher installed base than comet.