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by astrodust 704 days ago
Where have you been for 15 years?
1 comments

What happened in 2009?
A little earlier: the DoubleClick merger happened in 2007 and it took a little time for the ad guys to end up running everything, coincidentally also marking the end of their ability to launch a successful product.
Do you think the 2008 financial crisis had anything to do with it too? Like at that point, it was all focus on money, no focus on pet projects?
I’m sure it was related - everyone got really focused on the bottom line then – but I think they also had the problem that ads were so successful that it became hard to even consider other models because ads just instantly generate money, and a lot of their attention seemed to focus on that sit-and-consume model rather than, say, getting serious about building tools people would subscribe to.

G-Suite is kind of sad that way because there was some cool technology and initial goodwill but they just kind of coasted and slowly gave the market away to Microsoft, I think because the fountain of ad dollars meant nobody was worried about their bonus being cancelled or their shares going down significantly.