The American search engine that answers roughly nine of every ten searches worldwide, and sells the advertising beside them.
16 figures on Google, drawn from 4 Modern MBA case studies.
The figures
US dollars4
| Against its own chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue, operating income and AI capital expenditure at the five companies funding the boom · Revenue | $385B | 3rd of 5 · top $639B | Why the AI boom is the dot-com bubble again |
| Annual revenue in billions, 2023–24 | $340B | 3rd of 9 · top $648B | Why self-checkout didn't replace cashiers |
| Value of $1,000 invested in 2010 and held to 2019 | $4,345 | 6th of 7 · top $41,255 | Why self-checkout didn't replace cashiers |
| Revenue, operating income and AI capital expenditure at the five companies funding the boom · AI capital expenditure | −$85B | 4th of 5 · worst −$125B | Why the AI boom is the dot-com bubble again |
Percentages3
| Against its own chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margins of technology companies against retailers, 2019 | 56% | 3rd of 10 · top 82% | Why self-checkout didn't replace cashiers |
| Annual operating margins of the leading tech companies · 2009 | 35% | 1st of 4 · top 35% | Why AI is just big data again |
| Annual operating margins of the leading tech companies · 2016 | 26% | 3rd of 4 · top 45% | Why AI is just big data again |
Counts9
| Against its own chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2019 | 74M | 1st of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2018 | 66M | 2nd of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2017 | 54M | 3rd of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2016 | 41M | 4th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2015 | 30M | 5th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2014 | 26M | 6th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2013 | 20M | 7th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2012 | 17M | 8th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
| Average monthly visits by site, in millions · 2011 | 14M | 9th of 9 · top 74M | Why free content never became a business |
Case studies covering Google
Case study — TechnologyWhy the AI boom is the dot-com bubble againDifferent technology, same house of cards — and this time the pump happened in private, where nothing is marked to market.10 min read
Case study — Media & entertainmentWhy free content never became a businessBuzzFeed's advertising revenue has never once covered what it costs to make the content. That is the whole story.13 min read
Case study — Retail & brandsWhy self-checkout didn't replace cashiersAmazon's cashierless store was a thousand people in India watching cameras. Every retailer copied it anyway.15 min read
Case study — TechnologyWhy AI is just big data againBig data was sold for a decade and produced nothing. The same players are running the identical playbook with AI.15 min read