Innovation usually takes a much longer timeline than just launching something and killing it with a year or two when it’s not sufficiently Google scale.
The world would have a lot less great products if this is how it was always done.
This is why startups continue to be the primary innovation source. They are willing to go through the hard grind to find product/market fit over multiple years.
Most of the products purchased by the big guys are at least 5-7yrs old (WhatsApp, YouTube, Waze, Looker, etc). There are some rare exceptions like Instagram and Android which were both 2yrs old at acquisition.
That's because that talent isn't allowed to own anything. Imagine you know what to do and how to do it. You go to YC, present your idea and ask for some funding. And imagine they'd tell you that "Yea, we can pay you this fixed salary and see if your idea works. No, we get 100% rights. No, we won't share profits, but we'll up your salary if things go well. No, we can't tell you by how much." Who in their right mind agree on these terms? That's why employees don't share any really interesting ideas: they go to YC, get money and retain 93%. Google has the right people, but it's not really interested in any changes because ads work really well. Afaik, they even cancelled the 20% time.
Google is good at innovating in computer science and computer engineering. Google is not particularly good at innovating product ideas. This makes sense given how they find and hire talent.
They create products but lack the leadership needed to follow through when the initial exciting moments are over. I'd say that if you can't follow through on your innovations then you aren't good at innovating. They can do it on the tech side, lots of successful projects there.
The world would have a lot less great products if this is how it was always done.
This is why startups continue to be the primary innovation source. They are willing to go through the hard grind to find product/market fit over multiple years.
Most of the products purchased by the big guys are at least 5-7yrs old (WhatsApp, YouTube, Waze, Looker, etc). There are some rare exceptions like Instagram and Android which were both 2yrs old at acquisition.