Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat and Google CEO Sundar Pichai vowed that the company's investments in machine learning, cloud and broadband are worthwhile, as are its latest forays into hardware like the new Pixel phone and Google Home device.

Brian Santo, Senior editor, Test & Measurement / Components, Light Reading

October 27, 2016

5 Min Read
Neener, Neener, Google Won't Stop Moonshots

The Company Formerly Known As Google today announced its third-quarter revenue grew to $22.5 billion, up 20% from the like quarter a year ago. Mobile search, video, sales through Play and Google Cloud all contributed to the growth.

Under pressure from investors who loathe research and development, Google a year ago rebranded itself as Alphabet Inc. , and formally separated its fabulously successful ad business -- still called Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) -- from its more venturesome endeavors, which are now in a separate bucket the company cheekily labels "Other Bets."

There isn't much that Google is doing with its core business that requires justification. During their call with analysts today, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat and Google CEO Sundar Pichai instead spent much of their time offering assurances that the company's investments in things such as machine learning, cloud and broadband are worthwhile, as are its latest forays into hardware like the new Pixel phone and the Google Home device. (See Google's New Dream: Pixel, VR & an AI Assistant With Smarts.)

Porat said Alphabet will remain flexible about investment opportunities, that it will be smart about its investments, and that the new corporate structure provides a clear view into these projects for ample oversight.

She then offered a reminder why these are called Other Bets. "As we reach for moonshots that will have a big impact in the longer term, it's inevitable there will be course corrections over time, and some efforts will be more successful than others," she said. But, she continued, "We are laying the foundation for a stronger future."

Combining a robust and expansive cloud with artificial intelligence and an active presence in both home and office to amplify core businesses is a common strategy for Google and its biggest rivals, but investors focusing on direct sales opportunities within every P&L unit remain unconvinced and unmollified. (See Amazon Unlimited, Alexa, AI & How to Cut Off Google at Its Knees .)

In his prepared comments, Pichai wove a story of how online ad sales, video (YouTube), machine learning, the cloud, the new personal assistant called Assistant, older services like Google Maps, new consumer hardware devices like the Nest line of home automation products, the new Pixel phone and the new Google Home device all overlap.

"We’re very focused on our core mission," Pichai assured, adding that Google sees a huge opportunity to improve its core business with machine learning. He said Google Assistant plays into that effort.

Asked if Google can point to any specific improvements machine learning has brought to the search business, Pichai said the company is still in the early stages of applying machine learning to ad sales, while expressing confidence that there will be a long-term impact. He reiterated that whatever advantages ensue, the company’s customers will have access to them.

With regard to its cloud business, Pichai said the company is pursuing a hybrid strategy that includes on-premise computing with not just Google Cloud, but all public clouds. "Customers don't want to be locked in. The want workloads that will run in containers on any platform. Our containers provide that," he said.

Prior to reporting its earnings, Google revealed major decisions about a pair of Other Bets businesses. It decided to scale back Google Fiber, at least temporarily, and it announced that it has been setting up its autonomous car operations as a standalone endeavor with profit-and-loss responsibility. (See Google Fiber Hits Pause Button, Scales Back.)

Want to know more about the latest developments in the video services business? Check out our dedicated video channel here on Light Reading.

Since Google Fiber was first established, the company never stated definitively whether it intended to become a competitive multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD). If it ever intended to be, it's been lackadaisical going about it. Critics also say the company always underestimated how difficult and expensive the endeavor would be.

Google did have a clearly stated desire, however, for gigabit broadband to become more commonly available. Google Fiber unquestionably goosed other service providers into accelerating their rollouts of faster broadband, so by that measure, it was an unambiguous success.

Given yet another opportunity to comment on the company's intentions with Google Fiber, Porat said the impetus behind the effort was always to evaluate innovations in broadband and how Google can take advantage of those innovations. To that end, she said, Google remains committed to the dozen cities where Google Fiber is now operating or building all-fiber networks.

Asked directly if the company decided to suspend the expansion of Google Fiber in favor of rolling out wireless (the company bought wireless provider Webpass earlier this year), Porat dissembled.

As for the autonomous vehicle program, its finances were separated from Google's research lab, X (the "moonshot factory") in January. The company is now going through the process of standing up the endeavor as its own operating unit with P&L responsibility. The company announced some layoffs in the unit.

But where Apple shut down its autonomous vehicle program completely, Google plans to keep its up and running. Astro Teller, the head of X, said the plan is to introduce self-driving cars gradually and incrementally. The group's focus is on safety, he said.

— Brian Santo, Senior Editor, Components, T&M, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Brian Santo

Senior editor, Test & Measurement / Components, Light Reading

Santo joined Light Reading on September 14, 2015, with a mission to turn the test & measurement and components sectors upside down and then see what falls out, photograph the debris and then write about it in a manner befitting his vast experience. That experience includes more than nine years at video and broadband industry publication CED, where he was editor-in-chief until May 2015. He previously worked as an analyst at SNL Kagan, as Technology Editor of Cable World and held various editorial roles at Electronic Engineering Times, IEEE Spectrum and Electronic News. Santo has also made and sold bedroom furniture, which is not directly relevant to his role at Light Reading but which has already earned him the nickname 'Cribmaster.'

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