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Cloud Businesses Google

Google Cloud Lost $5.61 Billion On $13.06 Billion Revenue Last Year (cnbc.com) 24

Posted by BeauHD from the show-me-the-money dept.
Google's cloud business reported operating loss of $5.61 billion in 2020. It brought in $13.06 billion in revenue for the year. It's the first time the company revealed the operating income metric for its cloud business. CNBC reports: Alphabet's latest push to show it's serious about its cloud unit comes as it tries to diversify revenue, which primarily comes from advertising, a business that showed vulnerability in 2020 -- particularly in the second quarter. Google Cloud includes infrastructure and data analytics platforms, collaboration tools, and "other services for enterprise customers."

The company's past attempts to bolster its cloud unit under CEO Diane Greene, who left in 2018, failed to capture much market share. But, since former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian came to Google to lead its cloud efforts in 2019, the company has gone on hiring and acquisition sprees.
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Google Cloud Lost $5.61 Billion On $13.06 Billion Revenue Last Year More

Google Cloud Lost $5.61 Billion On $13.06 Billion Revenue Last Year

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  • Better start a migration plan (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:42PM (#61021282) Journal

    Not that betting on google cloud was ever a good idea for long term.

    • Ooof, never a good idea to put yourself in a place of relying on any Google service. We know how frequently they kill them off and move on to something else.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It should be standard operating procedure for cloud services to have a migration plan. Any of them could go away with little warning.

      At least with Google they do usually give you plenty of notice I suppose. Their cloud service will stick around but individual services on it may not. On the other hand they might be motivated to keep developing some of them because they help lower costs in their business, e.g. storage drives down the cost of their own storage needs.

      • Yeah, but they kind of lock you in with proprietary automations which are almost necessary for cost containment, in addition to offering native application services (like DBs).

        I'm sure you can spin up your own K8s/Docker base oriented towards high levels of portability to elsewhere (which isn't a ton of choices), but now you've probably got elevated baseline costs or a ton invested in reservations.

        I'd guess the only real solution is even more complex, multi-cloud solutions, but I can't decide if this is "po

  • They hired an Oracle exec?? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:45PM (#61021296)

    former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian came to Google to lead its cloud efforts in 2019, the company has gone on hiring and acquisition sprees.

    Well that explains why Google Cloud lost money and will continue to lose money - expansion without profit is all Oracle execs know.

    • The purpose of acquisition is to bring in something one doesn't have. Same with hiring. So the important question is what do these two bring in, and how does it benefit the company long-term? Apple brought in CPU designers and now we all are admiring the M1. Took awhile.

      • The purpose of acquisition is to bring in something one doesn't have.

        Apparently you don't know Oracle execs very well. The purpose of acquisition is to be in control of more of the companies money, which in turn justifies a higher salary and bonuses for yourself.

      • I think you're close to the answer.

        Google Cloud just made a deal with Ford. This will teach Google to do something that doesn't have to do with:

        Ads.

        Time and again, Google fails because something doesn't make ad revenue like ads have for them. So they spike it. Famously.

        They could actually make decent money with Fixed Or Repaired Daily auto service.

        • Google Cloud just made a deal with Ford. This will teach Google to do something that doesn't have to do with:

          Ads.

          Why would you think that? Drivers can't really take off for a piss while driving, and they need to keep their eyes facing front, so they're the ideal captive audience. Maybe the new Fords will come equipped with the new Google heads-up ads display, projecting ads all over your windshield? Or the new Ford dashboard will include a special extra-bright screen for ads, positioned front and center? Or, why not, you'll have to watch a non-skipable ad whenever you try to turn on the turn lights, or your wipers? Th

      • So what exactly do you think those hirings brought to google? perhaps they were thinking companies like Oracle failed as badly as we did and two negatives make a positive right? so lets hire their failed execs.
    • I used to work for Oracle. This dude was the more boring worthless thing there. Every time we had a all-hands I had to do lines of coke just to not fall asleep during his presentation...

      • I used to work for Oracle. This dude was the more boring worthless thing there. Every time we had a all-hands I had to do lines of coke just to not fall asleep during his presentation...

        Is the coke standard issue at Oracle? That might explain a few things.

    • Ah but Oracle knows how to extort money from customers, have a "compliance audit" and park at the customer for months wasting their time and trying to force them to some oracle cloud or sparc solution. There are now consulting companies that offer service of how to deal with Oracle's thug tactics. Larry Ellison is a thug and treats his customers like criminals. Avoid doing business with Oracle; if you're on Oracle migrate away or they will squeeze you.

    • Well that explains why Google Cloud lost money and will continue to lose money - expansion without profit is all Oracle execs know.

      Not strictly true. Don't forget Oracle's main revenue stream: suing their customers.

  • Dammit I refuse to believe they're losing money. It seems to me like they charge enough to recover the server hardware costs within a few months.

    • That's what I thought, they invested $18B in their cloud service last year? That's a fantastic amount of money. If you had told me that's what they spent on infrastructure for their core services I would have said, 'wow, that's a lot.'

  • A megacorp isn't a personal budget and the full context matters.

    I'm not sure why a few billion dollars is "news" but Slashdot apparently needs filler stories. A few billion to Google is less proportionally than a few dollars to the average person's wallet. It doesn't matter. What does matter is how "cloud" (a nebulous term) fits into Google's strategy.

  • Looking elswhere, appears both Microsoft and Amazon are making decent money with their Cloud services.

    So, are the losses mostly due to failure to gain market share, too many acqusitions, or onging bad management?
    Any one of these is not gerat news, a combination of two or more does not bode well at all.

    The non-profit I volunteer for has started planning for a transition to the cloud. Appears Google may not be a great option.

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