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Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to grow 11 percent year-on-year in 2023, slowing from last year’s 20 percent growth, an industry report showed on Wednesday. The annual report published jointly by Alphabet’s Google,

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Southeast Asia internet economy to grow 11% in 2023

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Inquirer on MSN.com

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia's internet economy is expected to grow 11% year-on-year in 2023, slowing from last year's 20% growth, an industry report showed on Wednesday. The annual report published jointly by Alphabet's Google,

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.otevHW65sH8_d0CCgX_zWi&pid=News

Southeast Asia internet economy to grow 11% y/y in 2023

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.6l3fMUjuba1Bx26WywDhqQ&pid=news

Google

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his company’s practice of paying Apple and other tech companies to make Google the default search engine on their devices, saying the intent was to make the user experience “seamless and easy.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.0cWvPRw-0T-KW96UnEXThy&pid=News

Testifying in antitrust case, Google CEO defends paying billions for default search on devices

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.44K-61Z6GlAK_htcB9BZcA&pid=news

WRAL TechWire

Attention

Investor

Alphabet (GOOGL) has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks. Therefore, you might want to consider some of the key factors that could influence the stock's performance in the near future.

United States

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know

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Zacks.com on MSN.com

Loitering with Intent

The Motley Fool

With the stock down 10%, Alphabet's valuation has gotten cheaper. It currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 23.6, which is right around the market average. This isn't dirt cheap, but investors need to remember a few things with Alphabet.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.25CFd41OYo_p75E_a5mOOy&pid=News

Stock

Alphabet Stock Is Sinking: Here's Why Now Could Be a Great Time to Buy

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Since Alphabet released its results on Oct. 24, its stock price has fallen by 12% as investors digested a slowdown in growth in the company's cloud computing segment, which is home to many of its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. But I think that decline creates a spectacular long-term opportunity for investors.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.I35tr6B2SSAOrYlEm-yydC&pid=News

William Ackman

2 Reasons the 12% Sell-Off in This Trillion-Dollar Stock Is Way Overdone

Apple Inc.

In the biggest U.S. antitrust case in a quarter century, the Department of Justice contends that Google—a company whose very name is synonymous with scouring the internet—pays off tech companies to lock out rival search engines to smother competition and innovation.

Google CEO defends paying Apple, others to make Google default search engine

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.NeA40Px6ulPPRECiUqIxOg&pid=news

Ibj.com

Sundar Pichai

Testifying in the biggest U.S. antitrust case in a quarter century, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his company’s practice of paying Apple and other tech companies to make Google the default search engine on their devices, saying the intent was to make the user experience “seamless and easy.’’

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.rGeFpfP3Zk3zZ6d6OrV76S&pid=News

Google CEO defends paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on devices

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.3EwhlHTnTNZId6PQAB3wEg&pid=news

NBC New York

Rose

Trench

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who testified on Monday in Washington to defend Google against allegations it broke antitrust law, replaced company co-founder Larry Page as CEO of parent Alphabet in 2019 as regulatory concern about Big Tech was heading toward a fever pitch.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.plupSf9f_S08Xu7NaK9kii&pid=News

Alphabet chief Pichai labored in trenches but rose to defend search giant

Silicon Valley

In his testimony Monday, Sundar Pichai sought to portray Google as a company running scared of rivals, rather than as a big behemoth quashing all competition.

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVFT.-ImoSBxXxgJwdJZAdRJYCi&pid=News

Google CEO Sundar Pichai defends practice of paying to have search engine made default on mobile devices

https://www.bing.com/th?id=ODF.t3F4eXZUTDaqQci8YlUgMw&pid=news

The Business Journals

Get the most recent info and news about Alphabet on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Alphabet Inc. provides online advertising services in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It offers performance and brand advertising services. The company operates through Google and Other Bets segments. The Google segment offers products, such as Ads, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, Google Maps, Google Play, Hardware, Search, and YouTube, as well as technical infrastructure. It also offers digital content, cloud services, hardware devices, and other miscellaneous products and services. The Other Bets segment includes businesses, including Access, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Verily, Waymo, and X, as well as Internet and television services. Alphabet Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Alphabet

Google's parent company  Alphabet Inc., on Thursday. They were not an exception to the effect of the current market downturn affecting the world, as they saw revenue slum and growth slowed when compared to Refinitiv projections. For Q4, consolidated revenues were $76 billion, a 1% gain over Q4 in 2021. released its fourth and fiscal year 2022 results In the conference call, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai described the growth run during the pandemic as a period of significant acceleration in digital spending, which has made the current macroeconomic ecosystem challenging as the world returns to normality. As communities and business owners embrace artificial intelligence, the search and android giant is aligning itself to be a . The call was centered mainly on three things: the impact of AI, how to unlock its potential across its products, and how to focus investment to make necessary decisions as a company to get there. key player in the field “First, the AI opportunity ahead. AI is the most profound technology we are working on today. Our talented researchers, infrastructure, and technology make us extremely well-positioned as AI reaches an inflection point. More than six years ago, I first spoke about Google being an AI-first company.” Pichai said. According to , Google management had several meetings around its company AI strategy amidst the soaring popularity of OpenAI chatbot ChatGPT and the partnership of its search engine competitor Microsoft. During the call, Pichai talked about the company’s plans to release large language models (LLMs) like LaMDA and PaLM to the public in the coming weeks and months. a New York Times report LaMDA will be the first to go public as they will await feedback from people to improve. He described this model to be particularly amazing for composing, constructing and summarizing. The company will be incorporating these LLMs in companionship with search, as it will become more useful as they provide up-to-date factual information. The company also plans to introduce LLMs into two of its products — Gmail and Docs. Pichai said there are plans in motion to incorporate generative capabilities into its design segment. He further stated the company would provide tools and APIs for developers and creators to enable them to create their applications and explore the possibilities of AI on the platform. Google ads business is its biggest revenue source despite going down by 2% in the last quarter, coming in at $42.6 billion. According to senior vice president and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, the company was able to outsize growth in advertising revenues during the pandemic, which saw advertising revenue of 2022 to be $90 billion higher than that in 2019. He reiterated the company's focus on generating revenue through AI-driven innovations, highlighting the progress made by smart bidding, which uses AI to predict future ad conversions and their value which help business to stay agile and responsive to a rapid shift in demand. The uses of AI advances boosted the bidding performance in the last year, which allowed advertiser outcomes down the funnel to drive ROI and use budgets more efficiently. “In 2022, AI advances boosted bidding performance, allowing us to move advertiser outcomes down the funnel to drive better ROI and use budgets more efficiently. In search query matching, large language models like MUM matched advertiser offices to user quarries. This understanding of human intent of language, combined with advances in bidding prediction, is why businesses can see an average of 35% more conversions when they upgrade exact match keywords to broad match in campaigns that use a target CPA. Google AI also underlies our creative products like tech suggestions in Google ads and creative optimization and responsive search ads.” Schindler said. Alphabet is throwing a strong signal to the AI industry after the company announced that they changing the financial report as it relates to its DeepMind AI in Q1. CFO Ruth Porat said this is due to increasing collaboration between DeepMind and Google products, and it will no longer be reported in other Bets and will now be reported as part of Alphabet’s corporate costs. Despite announcing a plan to and taking a severance charge of $1.9 to $2.9 billion, the company will be incurring an approximate sum of $500 million of costs related to exiting leases to align offices spaces with the adjusted headcount. Porat said the company would continue to hire in priority areas like artificial intelligence. She also said the company has a longer-term plan to re-engineer the cost base by incorporating AI to improve productivity across Alphabet for operational tasks. layoff 12,000 people in late January

Alphabet Doubles Up Efforts on AI as Tech Industry Races to Get a Foothold in the Sector

অ্যালফাবেট এআই-এর প্রচেষ্টাকে দ্বিগুণ করে কারণ টেক ইন্ডাস্ট্রি সেক্টরে পা রাখার জন্য রেস করছে

Alphabet verdoppelt seine Bemühungen im Bereich KI, während die Technologiebranche darum kämpft, in diesem Sektor Fuß zu fassen

Alphabet duplica los esfuerzos en IA a medida que la industria tecnológica se apresura a afianzarse en el sector

Alphabet redouble d'efforts sur l'IA alors que l'industrie technologique se précipite pour prendre pied dans le secteur

टेक उद्योग क्षेत्र में पैर जमाने के लिए अल्फाबेट ने एआई पर प्रयासों को दोगुना कर दिया

Alphabet が AI への取り組みを倍増

기술 산업이 해당 분야에서 발판을 마련하기 위해 경쟁함에 따라 Alphabet, AI에 대한 노력을 두 배로 늘림

Alphabet dobra esforços em IA enquanto a indústria de tecnologia corre para se firmar no setor

Teknoloji Sektörü Sektörde Yer Almak İçin Yarışırken Alphabet Yapay Zekaya Yönelik Çabaları İkiye Katlıyor

Bảng chữ cái tăng gấp đôi nỗ lực về AI khi ngành công nghiệp công nghệ chạy đua để có chỗ đứng trong lĩnh vực này

随着科技行业竞相在该领域站稳脚跟，Alphabet 加倍努力开发人工智能

Mark Twain's Speeches by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING here THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING ADDRESS AT THE DINNER GIVEN TO MR. CARNEGIE AT THE DEDICATION
          OF THE NEW YORK ENGINEERS’ CLUB, DECEMBER 9, 1907

          Mr. Clemens was introduced by the president of the club, who,
          quoting from the Mark Twain autobiography, recalled the day
          when the distinguished writer came to New York with $3 in small
          change in his pockets and a $10 bill sewed in his clothes. It seems to me that I was around here in the neighborhood of the Public Library about fifty or sixty years ago. I don’t deny the circumstance, although I don’t see how you got it out of my autobiography, which was not to be printed until I am dead, unless I’m dead now. I had that $3 in change, and I remember well the $10 which was sewed in my coat. I have prospered since. Now I have plenty of money and a disposition to squander it, but I can’t. One of those trust companies is taking care of it. Now, as this is probably the last time that I shall be out after nightfall this winter, I must say that I have come here with a mission, and I would make my errand of value. Many compliments have been paid to Mr. Carnegie to-night. I was expecting them. They are very gratifying to me. I have been a guest of honor myself, and I know what Mr. Carnegie is experiencing now. It is embarrassing to get compliments and compliments and only compliments, particularly when he knows as well as the rest of us that on the other side of him there are all sorts of things worthy of our condemnation. Just look at Mr. Carnegie’s face. It is fairly scintillating with fictitious innocence. You would think, looking at him, that he had never committed a crime in his life. But no—look at his pestiferious simplified spelling. You can’t any of you imagine what a crime that has been. Torquemada was nothing to Mr. Carnegie. That old fellow shed some blood in the Inquisition, but Mr. Carnegie has brought destruction to the entire race. I know he didn’t mean it to be a crime, but it was, just the same. He’s got us all so we can’t spell anything. The trouble with him is that he attacked orthography at the wrong end. He meant well, but he attacked the symptoms and not the cause of the disease. He ought to have gone to work on the alphabet. There’s not a vowel in it with a definite value, and not a consonant that you can hitch anything to. Look at the “h’s” distributed all around. There’s “gherkin.” What are you going to do with the “h” in that? What the devil’s the use of “h” in gherkin, I’d like to know. It’s one thing I admire the English for: they just don’t mind anything about them at all. But look at the “pneumatics” and the “pneumonias” and the rest of them. A real reform would settle them once and for all, and wind up by giving us an alphabet that we wouldn’t have to spell with at all, instead of this present silly alphabet, which I fancy was invented by a drunken thief. Why, there isn’t a man who doesn’t have to throw out about fifteen hundred words a day when he writes his letters because he can’t spell them! It’s like trying to do a St. Vitus’s dance with wooden legs. Now I’ll bet there isn’t a man here who can spell “pterodactyl,” not even the prisoner at the bar. I’d like to hear him try once—but not in public, for it’s too near Sunday, when all extravagant histrionic entertainments are barred. I’d like to hear him try in private, and when he got through trying to spell “pterodactyl” you wouldn’t know whether it was a fish or a beast or a bird, and whether it flew on its legs or walked with its wings. The chances are that he would give it tusks and make it lay eggs. Let’s get Mr. Carnegie to reform the alphabet, and we’ll pray for him—if he’ll take the risk. If we had adequate, competent vowels, with a system of accents, giving to each vowel its own soul and value, so every shade of that vowel would be shown in its accent, there is not a word in any tongue that we could not spell accurately. That would be competent, adequate, simplified spelling, in contrast to the clipping, the hair punching, the carbuncles, and the cancers which go by the name of simplified spelling. If I ask you what b-o-w spells you can’t tell me unless you know which b-o-w I mean, and it is the same with r-o-w, b-o-r-e, and the whole family of words which were born out of lawful wedlock and don’t know their own origin. Now, if we had an alphabet that was adequate and competent, instead of inadequate and incompetent, things would be different. Spelling reform has only made it bald-headed and unsightly. There is the whole tribe of them, “row” and “read” and “lead”—a whole family who don’t know who they are. I ask you to pronounce s-o-w, and you ask me what kind of a one. If we had a sane, determinate alphabet, instead of a hospital of comminuted eunuchs, you would know whether one referred to the act of a man casting the seed over the ploughed land or whether one wished to recall the lady hog and the future ham. It’s a rotten alphabet. I appoint Mr. Carnegie to get after it, and leave simplified spelling alone. Simplified spelling brought about sun-spots, the San Francisco earthquake, and the recent business depression, which we would never have had if spelling had been left all alone. Now, I hope I have soothed Mr. Carnegie and made him more comfortable than he would have been had he received only compliment after compliment, and I wish to say to him that simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Mark Twain's Speeches. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3188/pg3188-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING

What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET here A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET (This article, written during the autumn of 1899, was about the last writing done by Mark Twain on any impersonal subject.) I have had a kindly feeling, a friendly feeling, a cousinly feeling toward Simplified Spelling, from the beginning of the movement three years ago, but nothing more inflamed than that. It seemed to me to merely propose to substitute one inadequacy for another; a sort of patching and plugging poor old dental relics with cement and gold and porcelain paste; what was really wanted was a new set of teeth. That is to say, a new . alphabet The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet. It doesn’t know how to spell, and can’t be taught. In this it is like all other alphabets except one—the phonographic. That is the only competent alphabet in the world. It can spell and correctly pronounce any word in our language. That admirable alphabet, that brilliant alphabet, that inspired alphabet, can be learned in an hour or two. In a week the student can learn to write it with some little facility, and to read it with considerable ease. I know, for I saw it tried in a public school in Nevada forty-five years ago, and was so impressed by the incident that it has remained in my memory ever since. I wish we could adopt it in place of our present written (and printed) character. I mean the alphabet; simply the consonants and the vowels—I don’t mean any or abbreviations of them, such as the shorthand writer uses in order to get compression and speed. No, I would simply reductions spell every word out. I will insert the alphabet here as I find it in Burnz’s Phonic Shorthand. (Figure 1) It is arranged on the basis of Isaac Pitman’s . Isaac Pitman was the originator and father of scientific phonography. It is used throughout the globe. It was a memorable invention. He made it public seventy-three years ago. The firm of Isaac Pitman & Sons, New York, still exists, and they continue the master’s work. Phonography What should we gain? First of all, we could spell —and correctly—any word you please, just by the of it. We can’t do that with our present alphabet. For instance, take a simple, every-day word . If we tried to spell it by the sound of it, we should make it TYSIS, and be laughed at by every educated person. definitely sound phthisis Secondly, we should gain in in writing. reduction of labor Simplified Spelling makes valuable reductions in the case of several hundred words, but the new spelling must be . You can’t spell them by the sound; you must get them out of the book. learned But even if we knew the simplified form for every word in the language, the phonographic alphabet would still beat the Simplified Speller “hands down” in the important matter of economy of labor. I will illustrate: PRESENT FORM: through, laugh, highland. SIMPLIFIED FORM: thru, laff, hyland. PHONOGRAPHIC FORM: (Figure 2) To write the word “through,” the pen has to make twenty-one strokes. To write the word “thru,” the pen has to make twelve strokes—a good saving. To write that same word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. three To write the word “laugh,” the pen has to make strokes. fourteen To write “laff,” the pen has to make the of strokes—no labor is saved to the penman. same number To write the same word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. three To write the word “highland,” the pen has to make twenty-two strokes. To write “hyland,” the pen has to make eighteen strokes. To write that word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only FIVE strokes. (Figure 3) To write the words “phonographic alphabet,” the pen has to make fifty-three strokes. To write “fonografic alfabet,” the pen has to make fifty strokes. To the penman, the saving in labor is insignificant. To write that word (with vowels) with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. seventeen Without the vowels, only strokes. (Figure 4) The vowels are hardly necessary, this time. thirteen We make five pen-strokes in writing an m. Thus: (Figure 5) a stroke down; a stroke up; a second stroke down; a second stroke up; a final stroke down. Total, five. The phonographic alphabet accomplishes the m with a single stroke—a curve, like a parenthesis that has come home drunk and has fallen face down right at the front door where everybody that goes along will see him and say, Alas! When our written m is not the end of a word, but is otherwise located, it has to be connected with the next letter, and that requires another pen-stroke, making six in all, before you get rid of that m. But never mind about the connecting strokes—let them go. Without counting them, the twenty-six letters of our alphabet consumed about eighty pen-strokes for their construction—about three pen-strokes per letter. It is required by the phonographic alphabet. It requires but stroke for each letter. three times the number one My writing-gait is—well, I don’t know what it is, but I will time myself and see. Result: it is twenty-four words per minute. I don’t mean composing; I mean . There isn’t any definite composing-gait. copying Very well, my copying-gait is 1,440 words per hour—say 1,500. If I could use the phonographic character with facility I could do the 1,500 in twenty minutes. I could do nine hours’ copying in three hours; I could do three years’ copying in one year. Also, if I had a typewriting machine with the phonographic alphabet on it—oh, the miracles I could do! I am not pretending to write that character well. I have never had a lesson, and I am copying the letters from the book. But I can accomplish my desire, at any rate, which is, to make the reader get a good and clear idea of the advantage it would be to us if we could discard our present alphabet and put this better one in its place—using it in books, newspapers, with the typewriter, and with the pen. (Figure 6)— . I think it is graceful and would look comely in print. And consider—once more, I beg—what a labor-saver it is! Ten pen-strokes with the one system to convey those three words above, and thirty-three by the other! (Figure 7) I mean, in SOME ways, not in all. I suppose I might go so far as to say in most ways, and be within the facts, but never mind; let it go at . One of the ways in which it exercises this birthright is—as I think—continuing to use our laughable alphabet these seventy-three years while there was a rational one at hand, to be had for the taking. Man Dog Horse some It has taken five hundred years to simplify some of Chaucer’s rotten spelling—if I may be allowed to use so frank a term as that—and it will take five hundred more to get our exasperating new Simplified Corruptions accepted and running smoothly. And we sha’n’t be any better off then than we are now; for in that day we shall still have the privilege the Simplifiers are exercising now: can change the spelling that wants to. anybody It will always follow the SOUND. If you want to change the spelling, you have to change the sound first. But you can’t change the phonographic spelling; there isn’t any way. Mind, I myself am a Simplified Speller; I belong to that unhappy guild that is patiently and hopefully trying to reform our drunken old alphabet by reducing his whiskey. Well, it will improve him. When they get through and have reformed him all they can by their system he will be only HALF drunk. Above that condition their system can never lift him. There is no competent, and lasting, and real reform for him but to take away his whiskey entirely, and fill up his jug with Pitman’s wholesome and undiseased alphabet. One great drawback to Simplified Spelling is, that in print a simplified word looks so like the very nation! and when you bunch a whole squadron of the Simplified together the spectacle is very nearly unendurable. The da ma ov koars kum when the publik ma be expektd to get rekonsyled to the bezair asspekt of the Simplified Kombynashuns, but—if I may be allowed the expression—is it worth the wasted time? (Figure 8) To see our letters put together in ways to which we are not accustomed offends the eye, and also takes the out of the words. expression La on, Makduf, and damd be he hoo furst krys hold, enuf! It doesn’t thrill you as it used to do. The simplifications have sucked the thrill all out of it. But a written character with which we are does not offend us—Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, and the others—they have an interesting look, and we see beauty in them, too. And this is true of hieroglyphics, as well. There is something pleasant and engaging about the mathematical signs when we do not understand them. The mystery hidden in these things has a fascination for us: we can’t come across a printed page of shorthand without being impressed by it and wishing we could read it. not acquainted Very well, what I am offering for acceptance and adoption is not shorthand, but longhand, written with the . You can write three times as many words in a minute with it as you can write with our alphabet. And so, in a way, it properly a shorthand. It has a pleasant look, too; a beguiling look, an inviting look. I will write something in it, in my rude and untaught way: (Figure 9) Shorthand Alphabet Unreduced is Even when do it it comes out prettier than it does in Simplified Spelling. Yes, and in the Simplified it costs one hundred and twenty-three pen-strokes to write it, whereas in the phonographic it costs only twenty-nine. I (Figure 9) is probably (Figure 10). Let us hope so, anyway. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). What Is Man? and Other Essays. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70/pg70-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET

If you haven't realized it yet, this is a crazy market! However, beyond short-term volatility driven by liquidity and macroeconomic trends. There are a few interesting takes from the latest financial releases of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Let's see some of them! Google’s parent company, Alphabet, released its end-of-year financials. Looking at its financials is important for various reasons and some of them are: Assessing the digital advertising landscape. Understanding how Google’s advertising machine works at scale. How consumers’ behavior is shifting in this new digital landscape. Let’s dive into them. Google’s profitability Google’s profitability has slightly improved in 2021, thanks to the fact it managed to increase its faster than it increased its operational costs, as traffic on its platforms increased substantially during 2020-2021. We’ll see in this in-depth why that’s the case. revenue analysis First of all, for the first time in its history, Google generated over $257 billion in revenues. And the company almost reached a two trillion market capitalization. For some context, when Google IPOed in 2004, it recorded almost a billion in revenues, and it was worth about $23 billion, as it popped at its IPO date to $85 per share (On February 2nd, 2022, a Google stock is worth $2,958.22). At the time, in 2004, Google had just managed to scale its advertising machine comprised mainly of Google AdWords (today Google Ads) and Google AdSense. At the time the advertising machine was primarily based on Internet traffic from desktop devices. That was a completely different world. As we’ll see throughout this , today most traffic comes from mobile. And Google ’s mobile ads platforms (Google AdMob) play a key role. So let’s dive a bit into the main segments of . analysis financial Google Google’s main segments in 2021 In 2021, the Google advertising machine, generated over $209 billion in revenues. This represented an over 42% , year over year! This is a massive improvement for a company worth almost two trillion. In a market landscape that is not anymore in favor of advertising. How did Google pull this off? growth digital We’ll see this shortly. But for now, let’s emphasize a few key points. Today the Google advertising machine is comprised of three main products: : This represents the set of products that Google owns, from the search engines to all the other vertical platforms that the company operates (Google Discover, Google News, Google Travel, and more). In 2021, this segment generated over $148 billion! Google Search/Properties : This is of course one of the most successful acquisitions ever done. It was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006. It’s important to notice that Google was able to integrate YouTube and scale it up. A feat that not every other company would have been able to achieve. At the time YouTube was getting sued for various copyright infringements (the is comprised of user-generated content, often posting copyrighted materials) that would have most probably bankrupted it if it had stayed a startup without Google’s backing. By 2021, YouTube has become an advertising machine generating over $28 billion (this doesn’t count the YouTube memberships, which are reported separately). YouTube business platform this is the set of publishers that decide to opt into Google’s advertising network (either AdSense for desktop, or AdMob for in-app advertising). Here Google shows advertising on the network members’ properties, thus splitting the revenues with them. In 2021, Google’s network members generated over $31 billion of revenues. And Google Network Members’ properties: As we’ll see understanding the difference among these segments helps us understand how Google manages its cost structure for each segment. What determines the rowth of each segment? g In fact, since the pandemic hit, more and more users started to use Google’s products. This trend has continued. However, most of it was driven by mobile users’ rowth . This is an important aspect, as it shows that Google’s main driver of rowth is based on mobile traffic. This changes the way the company to prioritize its developments efforts, its ad formats served to users, and also how it experiments. Google’s search advertising has been driven by g rowth in search queries. g g needs product This means that Alphabet (as it’s evident to anyone going on YouTube) has ramped up the advertising operations on YouTube. In short, on YouTube now there are way more ads than before. This “improved ad formats” is the result of YouTube’s extreme stickiness with users, which enables Alphabet to play with its ad formats. YouTube g rowth was driven primarily by improved ad formats. In short, the mobile advertising platform, powered up by Android devices through the Google Play store, was the main driver of in 2021. This shows how Google has shifted also its focus on the mobile advertising platform. Google’s network members’ properties were primarily driven by AdMob. revenue growth Let’s see how, a little bit more in detail, ad monetization changed for Google. In 2021, two main factors determined the improvement in ad monetization by Google. First, Google recorded an increase in paid clicks (driven by an increase in user adoption and search queries primarily on mobile devices). Second, this also drove more paid clicks in AdMob through the Google Play store. Third, as we saw Google is testing various ad formats (we can argue it’s showing more ads) both on Google’s products and YouTube, which slightly improved monetization. Among the other revenues, instead, Google Cloud also recorded an important thanks to the Google Cloud Platform. growth Let’s look now at the other side, the cost structure. Google’s cost structure When it comes to Google its cost structure is pretty straightforward. In order to keep its operations profitable, it needs to be able to generate traffic at much lower costs, than it can monetize it. In 2021, Google traffic acquisition costs (the spending needed to run the servers, for its main products, and the deals in place to enable the for its main products) were over $45 billion. distribution In respect to advertising revenues, its traffic acquisition costs were 22% of its advertising revenues in 2020. In 2021, instead, the traffic acquisition costs decreased to 21.7% compared to its revenues. This might seem a little difference. Yet, Google managed to lower its traffic acquisition costs, nonetheless its much wider users’ adoption. This shows that a lot of that adoption was organic, and based on strong deals the company has in place. The other cost of revenues instead was mainly driven by improved content acquisition costs and costs in data centers. In terms of profitability, it’s interesting to notice, how, at a wider scale, Google Services has huge margins. That’s because as we saw in the previous paragraph, Google managed to improve monetization for users, it saw mobile users’ growth, while it managed to lower its traffic acquisition costs! This combination led to an improved marginality. However, it’s also interesting to notice how the Google Advertising machine is the only one running at positive margins. Where instead, both the Google Cloud platform and the other Google Bets run at negative margins. Important to distinguish here. The Google Cloud platform is critical for the future success of the Google AI platform. When it comes to the other bets those instead are breakthroughs that Alphabet is pursuing with a long-term perspective. Those are money-losing bets for now but might turn into something interesting in the coming decade. Back in the early 2000s, the company had started to build its advertising machine. This journey culminated in 2004 when the company had managed to put together the various pieces (Google AdWords and Google AdSense) of its advertising machine, thus scaling up its revenues on top of a growing search platform. Indeed, in 2004 Google generated almost a billion dollars in revenues, and it was worth about $23 billion as it IPOed. In 2021, the company passed the $257 billion mark! Google’s Alphabet has become a two trillion-dollar company in 2021. This trend continues across 2020-2021. The increased search query traffic was primarily due to mobile users. Therefore, Google had to push more experimentations through its mobile platforms. Among the biggest drivers of its revenues were the increased adoptions from users as the pandemic hit. Alphabet here pushed through more ad formats, and more advertising to monetize it further. Thus, taking advantage of the increased mobile traffic as a consequence of the pandemic. YouTube, driven by mobile traffic growth saw also an important growth. And yet its ability to keep monetizing the traffic through increased ad spending, but also by serving more ads on its platforms. The above led to increased profitability, given the ability of Alphabet to reduce/or keep its costs stable as traffic increased. Google ads platform remains the strongest segment of the company, with massive profitability. However, both play a critical role in the future (Google Cloud Platform in the next five years, while the other bets in the coming ten-fifteen years). Google has negative margins on its Cloud Platform and its further bets. Facebook How much will Facebook (now Meta) lose as a consequence of Apple's policy change? At least $10 billion in 2022! This is for Facebook alone. For some context, Apple now requires apps to explicitly ask users if they want to be tracked, while before the consent was given by default. As Facebook highlighted in its latest financials: And they further explained: And finally, they put a number on it: "with Apple's iOS changes and new regulation in Europe, there's a clear trend where less data is available to deliver personalized ads... ...Like others in our industry, we faced headwinds as a result of Apple iOS changes... ...Apple created two challenges for advertisers: one is that the accuracy of our ads targeting decreased, which increased the cost of driving outcomes; the other is that measuring those outcomes became more difficult. These challenges are complex and interrelated. We're working to try and improve things..." "For example, by making progress in closing the underreporting gap for iOS web conversions and by introducing tools like our aggregated event measurement solutions to deliver better insights for advertisers..." "And, you know, we believe the impact of iOS overall as a headwind on our business in 2022 is on the order of $10 billion, so it's a pretty significant headwind for our business. And, you know, we're seeing that impact, you know, in a number of verticals..." Summing things up for the digital advertising landscape: Some key highlights from the latest financials of Google (Alphabet) and Facebook (Meta) also show some of the changes in the digital advertising landscape. This, in turn, is affecting millions of small businesses across the world: In reality, it was the pandemic that accelerated the trend. For both Google and Facebook, mobile traffic is the only growth driver. The pandemic determined a mobile transition: while companies like Google and Facebook have been investing in mobile-first for years. An interesting note here: Google (thanks to its vertical integration) managed to monetize its increased adoption. Facebook, on the contrary, hasn’t, and this was definitely due to Apple’s privacy change. The supply chain of data: it’s crucial to understand how Google and Facebook are entirely different in terms of structure. Where . While this played out well for Facebook so far. As soon as Apple tied up the distribution pipeline, it threatened the whole business! Google is vertically integrated (Hardware/Android > Chrome/Play Store > Search Engine/Search Ads), Facebook primarily relies on its strong brands who benefit from stickiness (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus) for the first time users stalled in various regions across the world. This is because there is too much pressure from new social media platforms (TikTok is killing it). Stalled user growth of Facebook: where Google’s growth potential has not been affected so far (it might come in the future), Facebook’s growth has already been affected. Thus, the move to the Metaverse for Facebook is not just a strategic bet; it’s a survival anchor! This means Facebook has to rush into it! Blitzscale the adoption of VR devices, which might turn into enormous mistakes. The move into the Metaverse becomes a survival anchor for Facebook: Who might benefit? Let’s draw some key points: Facebook has to push into VR (Oculus is a first step there). But the vision of Facebook of VR is way more pervading than any other company as its survival depends on that. Accelerating VR adoption for Facebook: all tech giants are rushing into VR with different philosophies. Apple believes in augmented reality, Google believes in mixed reality. Facebook wants to bring us into the Matrix. Therefore, we’ll see the first VR headsets probably in 2022 as the first exploration toward AR. VR/AR wars coming in 2022: digital platforms that go back to contextual advertising rather than aggressive targeting might benefit in this phase (Reddit over Facebook). Contextual advertising might win over targeted ads based on tracking: companies whose business model has privacy built-in will keep their growth trajectory. Thus, search engines like DuckDuckGo might skyrocket, and social media platforms like MeWe might thrive. Rise of privacy first search engines and social media: What about Amazon? Some interesting takes from Amazon's financials as it closed the year. No wonder Jeff Bezos picked up Andy Jessy (the current CEO) as his successor. Andy Jessy has led AWS since its inception in 2003! In Q4, Amazon online stores stalled compared to the previous year (hint: the pandemic contributed to the 2020 boost). The fastest-growing segments were AWS and Amazon advertising. Amazon's advertising machine passed $30 billion in revenues in 2021. For some context, YouTube ads generated over $28 billion in 2021. Amazon AWS showed incredible growth. A 40% growth year over year. Amazon AWS is a $71 billion revenue run rate business! And it has wide margins (so far) and incredible profitability, which connects to the next point. Of Amazon's over $33 billion in profits, over $18 billion were contributed by AWS! This means that more than 50% of Amazon's profitability depends on AWS. AWS is an enterprise powerhouse. Among its customers, there is also Meta! Meta, former Facebook Inc, relies on Amazon AWS for its AI development platform. Other huge brands built on top of Amazon AWS are Best Buy, Under Armour, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Roche, and many others. Can you guess what's next? Also Published Here

Big Tech Highlights From Alphabet, Meta and Amazon Financials For 2021

Fun little experiment to try out: go to your browser’s address bar (works best in desktop Chrome) and record your top websites that autocomplete for each of the letters . And if you’re feeling especially brave, share the results with the world… 😈 a-z My Google Chrome autocomplete results for A-Z. My Results A) - no surprises here. 🛍 amazon.com B) - mirror for the torrents. baypirateproxy.org thepiratebay C) - for all your anime needs. crunchyroll.com D) - kinda old school, but I prefer checking it to any personalized newesfeeds for generic news. digg.com E) - Useful TODO list app (I’ve recently switched to and couldn’t be happier). en.todoist.com todoist notion F) - Duh, though I’ve disabled my FB news feed with the chrome plugin so I don’t visit nearly as often as I used to. facebook.com News Feed Eradicator G) - Open source work consumes a lot of my time. ⭐️ is a reasonably distant second place here. github.com grubhub.com H) - Netflix’s younger cousin.. cause some stuff’s only available on Hulu. hulu.com I) - Really interesting new design tool that aims to make design + dev collaboration much easier. interplayapp.com J) - Very useful curated list of high quality React components. js.coach/react K) - Old KickAssTorrents mirror that is out of date. katcr.co L) - Ahh the joys of local web development. 😄 http://localhost:3000 M) - I use FB Messenger a lot more than SMS ever since I spent a few years living abroad in Thailand. International SMS is clunky but internet messaging platforms always “just work”. And of those platforms like Line, Wechat, etc., the only one where 99% of my friends have accounts is FB Messenger. messenger.com N) - Hacker News! 😎 I was a little surprised didn’t make it as my #1 but these days I stream more from external devices than my primary laptop. Also rounding out my top 3. news.ycombinator.com Netflix nytimes.com O) - Cause some companies force you to use Outlook 🤷‍ outlook.com P) - As a serial entrepreneur, Product Hunt’s a daily visit for me. producthunt.com Q) Leaving this one out as it’s an admin dashboard for async jobs for a recent project of mine. R) - The constant rabbit-hole of Reddit. :sigh: reddit.com S) - Torrent directory listing. seventorrentsmirror.info T) - This one’s probably my most visited. FOMO for better or worse… twitter.com U) - Excellent royalty-free stock photo site. unsplash.com V) - Crunchyroll’s cooler sister made by the same peeps. Anime streaming central. vrv.co W) - Reasonably unbiased news. wsj.com X) This was the only letter that didn’t autocomplete to any website for me… no seriously, it didn’t autocomplete even though there were results… I wonder if this is a built-in privacy mechanism of Chrome because I definitely don’t use Incognito mode... 🤷‍ Y) - I spend a lot more time on here than I probably should. :sigh: youtube.com Z) - Cause health’s important yo. zocdoc.com Categories These results can be roughly grouped into the following categories: Streaming (Hulu, VRV, YouTube, Crunchyroll, and various torrent sites) Software (localhost, GitHub, ProductHunt, js.coach) News (WSJ, Digg, Twitter, Hacker News) Social (Twitter, Facebook, Messenger) Insights I stream a LOT of video and ❤️ torrents (shout out to ). WebTorrent I’m pretty surprised there’s nothing NSFW on this list. 🕵 I’m sure there are a few results on here that would be novel and/or surprising to you and vice-versa. Conclusion So what is your alphabet of most visited websites? If you’re feeling brave, share some standouts from your list in the comments below or mention me @transitive_bs on Twitter! Hopefully this was a fun little experiment for you.. in a similar vein to ProductHunt sharing the most sticky apps that people use a lot but most people don’t know about ( ). example Also, gimme some of them claps 👏 👏 👏 Cheers!

🔥 Alphabet of Your Most Visited Sites 🔥

A is for because it’s traffic we cite, although I don’t know how accurate it is. We could google it. ALEXA.com ( ranking in parenthesis ) B is for because they power the majority of China’s 4b monthly search queries, and that’s just the beginning of their business. BAIDU.com (4th) C is for because the news is the news of the owner’s interest and seeing a site for what it is isn’t popular. CNN.com (89th) D is for because digital storage will forever be a challenge and starting a site with the “duh” sound isn’t popular. DROPBOX.com (72nd) E is for because they convinced the average citizen they could make money on the internet. They used to rank much higher. EBAY.com (32nd) F is for because it’s the back-hole that controls a billion identities on the internet. FACEBOOK.com (3rd) G is for because our clicks on it fund the Alphabet, and it’s now the verb we trust to end any argument. GOOGLE.com (1st) H is for because I am evaluating pros and cons to “likeminded sponsorship” in the age of internet journalism. HACKERNOON .com ( 6,358th ) I is for because it filters the mundane and they take no shame in the . INSTAGRAM.com (16th) stories of stealing digital products J is for because why not connect China with the world’s consumers. So few sites start with “j.” JD.com (337th) K is for because it’s a Russian movie site, and the only .club to be #1 ranked site for it’s letter. KINOGO.club (256th) L is for because we like to pretend that doesn’t have a monopoly on googling things. LIVE.com (12th) GOOGLE M is for because it ranks higher than it’s parent but lower than its brother MSN.com ( 42nd ) MICROSOFT (44th) (LIVE, 12th). N is for because they set the market rate for the cost of streaming . NETFLIX.com (50th) entertainment O is for because we mustn’t’ forget that eyeballs are made to let our fingers know which ads to click on. ONCLICKADS.com (31st) P is for because if there’s a better way to organize images, it’ll be acquired into this alphabetical world. PINTEREST.com (45th) Q is for because who doesn’t love consuming their Chinese news via endless rows of font 8 headlines with no pictures? QQ.com (10th) R is for because no site structure was ever more perfect for the specific nature of the internet than upvote/downvote. REDDIT.com (25th) S is for because wow another Chinese media site… No matter the government, traffic monetizes. SINA.com (19th) T is for because maybe someday I’ll write a letter home saying, “Hey Mom, you won’t believe it, they verified !!” TWITTER.com (8th) me U is for because Portuguese is a beautiful language and this is the largest internet portal for Portuguese speakers. UOL.com.br (126th) V is for because Facebook does not own Europe! This St. Petersburg based social network has 369,000,000+ users. VK.com (15th) W is for because it’s re-writing any term beyond the dictionary. It’s .com redirects to it’s .org, only one on the list! WIKIPEDIA.org (5th) X is for because porn is the driving factor behind much of the internet’s innovations. XVIDEOS.com(74th) Y is for because all video in the history of the world should be on one site owned by , right? YOUTUBE (2nd) GOOGLE Z is for because questions and answers are the light and dark of the internet. Other than the URL, this site is not in English. ZHIHU.com (135th) Editor’s Note: Each site is the top Alexa ranked for the letter it starts with, except for and because the internet! “A” “H” “AH,”

Alphabetical Internet Ownership

There are situations, when during the development of an application, there is a need to create a sequence of data, such as a sequence of numbers that can serve as identifiers. Some programming languages have special built-in functions that can generate such data, but JavaScript does not. range In this article, we will look at how to implement a similar function in JavaScript and how to use it in different situations. The function in JavaScript can be useful in cases where you need to generate a sequence of integers or other data types with a certain amount of spacing between values. Also, as an example, you can give a sequence of dates, with an interval of a day, a week, or a month. range However, let’s begin with an easier example and use the function to generate a sequence of numbers from 1 to 10 like this: range range(1, 10); // [1, 2, 3, ..., 10] Below you can see one of the implementations of the range function to generate a sequence of numbers: function range(start, end) {
  const seq = [];

  for (let i = start; i <= end; i++) {
    seq.push(i);
  }

  return seq;
} In this example above, the function creates a new array and fills it with integers using a loop. After the array is filled, the function returns it. range seq for You can change the step between elements of a sequence by adding a third argument to the function: function range(start, end, step) {
  const seq = [];

  for (let i = start; i <= end; i += step) {
    seq.push(i);
  }

  return seq;
}

range(1, 10, 2); // [1, 3, 5, 7, 9] Here, the function returns an array of odd numbers from 1 to 10 since the initial value is set to 1 and the step is set to 2. You can also change the direction of the sequence generation by specifying a negative step like this: range function range(start, end, step) {
  const seq = [];

  for (let i = start; i >= end; i += step) {
    seq.push(i);
  }

  return seq;
}

range(10, 1, -2); // [10, 8, 6, 4, 2] Note that the function only works with integers. If you need to generate a sequence of fractional numbers, then you need to write an appropriate function or use other ways to generate a sequence with fractional numbers. range The function can be used to create a sequence of strings, such as a sequence of letters from the alphabet: range function range(start, end, step = 1) {
  const start = start.charCodeAt(0);
  const end = end.charCodeAt(0);

  const seq = [];
  for (let i = start; i <= end; i += step) {
    seq.push(String.fromCharCode(i));
  }

  return seq;
}

range('a', 'z'); // ['a', 'b', 'c', ..., 'z'] In this example, we initiate the method on the start and end value of the sequence. The method returns the numeric value for the character at the specified index. charCodeAt charCodeAt Next, using the loop, iterate over the elements of the sequence and set the values using the method. The static method returns a string created from the specified character code. After the array is filled, the function returns it. for String.fromCharCode() String.fromCharCode() In the previous examples, the function generates either a sequence of integers or strings from start to end values with a given step. However, you can also create a function with more complex logic that will work on different data types at the same time. range range To summarize, we have analyzed the function in JavaScript, which allows you to generate a sequence of numbers and strings with a certain step. range We learned how to implement such a function with a loop and how to use it in various situations. Use the function to simplify your code and speed up development. for range

Function Range in JavaScript: Generating a Sequence of Data

The Markup obtained internal documents that coach new employees to avoid creating “very real legal risks” in using words like “market” and “networkeffects” As Google faces at least four major antitrust investigations on two continents, internal documents obtained by The Markup show its parent company, Alphabet, has been preparing for this moment for years, telling employees across the massive enterprise that certain language is off limits in all written communications, no matter how casual. The taboo words include “market,” “barriers to entry,” and “network effects,” which is when products such as social networks become more valuable as more people use them. “Words matter. Especially in antitrust law,” reads one document titled “ .” Five Rules of Thumb for Written Communications “Alphabet gets sued a lot, and we have our fair share of regulatory investigations,” reads another. “Assume every document will become public.” The internal documents appear to be part of a self-guided training session for a wide range of the company’s more than 100,000 employees, from engineers to salespeople. One document, titled “Global Competition Policy,” says it applies not only to interns and employees but also to temps, vendors, and contractors. The documents explain the basics of antitrust law and caution against loose talk that could have implications for government regulators or private lawsuits. "Words matter. Especially in antitrust law." Alphabet internal training document In one of the documents, which appear to be written by the legal team, employees are advised to choose their words carefully and use only third-party data when referencing Google’s “position in search” in sales pitches. They are further cautioned never to print or hand out their slides. “We use the term ‘User Preference for Google Search’ and never the term market share,” says. that document Google Search is the company’s most profitable product and, as such, a large target for antitrust regulation. It’s that nine in 10 web searches in the U.S. are completed on Google. estimated To take action against a company, antitrust regulators must establish that it has a dominant share in a market. The more broadly a market is defined, the easier it is for the company to argue that it has real competition. In the slides, employees are cautioned that defining a market is hard and best avoided. “These are completely standard competition law compliance trainings that most large companies provide to their employees,” Google spokesperson Julie Tarallo McAlister said in an email. “We instruct employees to compete fairly and build great products, rather than focus or opine on competitors. We’ve had these trainings in place for well over a decade.” Bad Words One part of the presentation, subtitled “ ,” advises employees on which terms are “Bad” and “Good.” Communicating Safely Instead of “market,” employees may say “industry,” “space,” “area,” or simply cite the region, according to the presentation. Instead of “network effects,” the presentation suggests “valuable to users.” And instead of “barriers to entry,” substitute “challenges.” Alphabet internal training document An excerpt from Alphabet internal training documents. Re-created by The Markup to protect sources. Alphabet is under investigation by 50 attorneys general and the Department of Justice for potentially abusing its dominance to undermine competition. Its acquisitions, along with those of other major U.S. tech giants, are being reviewed for anticompetitive effects by the Federal Trade Commission. The European Commission an “in-depth” investigation of Google’s acquisition of fitness tracker Fitbit and is probing possible antitrust violations regarding Google for Jobs. announced McAlister said Google representatives “continue to engage with ongoing investigations” and pointed to a where the company said its deal with Fitbit “will increase choice.” blog post She also said the company “vigorously” denies claims by Sonos in its patent infringement suit, which alleges that Google first partnered with the company and then copied its technology. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in January that Google uses its dominance to shut down competition. Google countersued in June, alleging that Sonos infringed on its patents. testified Last week, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai faced a grueling 61 questions from lawmakers referencing the company’s dominance in online video, advertising, search, and other areas at a before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. hearing During the hearing, the chair of the subcommittee, Rep. David Cicilline, mentioned an by The Markup that showed Google Search presented its own results and products above competitors’. He held it up as evidence that Google has turned search into a “walled garden.” investigation According to a CSPAN transcript of the hearing, Pichai did not say the words “network effects” or “dominant” once and steered clear of defining any particular market. “Google operates in highly competitive and dynamic global markets, in which prices are free or falling, and products are constantly improving,” he said. Why "Network Effects" Matter Respected Silicon Valley antitrust lawyers Doug Melamed of Stanford University and Gary Reback of Carr & Ferrell both said it’s not unusual for a giant company such as Alphabet to coach employees to avoid talking about dominance. “It’s not just trying to hide the truth, it’s really trying to avoid the use of inflammatory language,” said Melamed, a former acting assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice. “The use of the word ‘market’ could be very innocent, but it could be misleading and provocative to an antitrust enforcer. Antitrust enforcers really get exercised when they think someone dominates a market.” Alphabet’s emphasis in training documents on avoiding the term “network effects” is a new one, both lawyers said, and goes to one of the main issues in tech antitrust. It was one of the concepts the U.S. government and attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia used to prosecute Microsoft for antitrust violations in 1998. They claimed the company broke the law, in part by using its dominance in the PC market to restrict competition by bundling Internet Explorer and other Microsoft products with the Windows operating system. “The barriers that exist to the entry of new competitors or the expansion of smaller existing competitors, including network effects, mean that dominance once achieved cannot readily be reversed,” the DOJ wrote in its complaint. “Once you admit strong network effects,” said Reback, who has represented competitors in antitrust cases against Google, “then it becomes easier for someone like me to say, ‘You’ve gotten this dominant share through exploitation of network effects, it’s clear there are high barriers to entry, we’re going to need to break you up or do something strong to stop you from abusing your position.’ ” "We are not out to ‘crush,’ ‘kill,’ ‘hurt,’ ‘block,’ or do anything else that might be perceived as evil or unfair." Alphabet training slide Reback represented Netscape early on in the Microsoft case and was the co-author of a about Microsoft that argued that network effects made tech companies gain market share faster than in other industries, and therefore antitrust regulators must be more aggressive. 222-page white paper Alphabet’s training documents lay out the basic concepts of antitrust law: “Competition laws, aka antitrust laws, are those that govern the conduct of businesses in order to protect fair competition, and, as a result, protect consumers.” No Crushing The slides also remind employees to keep the focus on how whatever they’re talking about benefits the public, which is a strong defense in antitrust matters: “Pro-tip: when drafting slides, always include at least one that shows how your business decisions will benefit consumers, partners, etc.” “We are not out to ‘crush,’ ‘kill,’ ‘hurt,’ ‘block,’ or do anything else that might be perceived as evil or unfair,” reads one portion. “Microsoft famously got into trouble when one of their employees threatened to ‘cut off Netscape’s air supply.’ ” Employees are given “Five Rules of Thumb for Written Communications,” according to the documents: We’re out to help users, not hurt competitors. Our users should always be free to switch, and we don’t lock anyone in. We’ve got lots of competitors, so don’t assume we control or dominate any market. Don’t try and define a market or estimate our market share. Assume every document you generate, including email, will be seen by regulators. Alphabet internal training document s. An excerpt from Alphabet internal training documents. Re-created by The Markup to protect source “If they can get their employees to comply with those guidelines, good for them,” said Melamed, the former DOJ antitrust official, who was one of the prosecutors on the Microsoft case. “But most companies’ documents are still filled with all sorts of stuff like this.” European regulators have already used internal emails against Alphabet. In an earlier investigation, they found emails that indicated that its shopping product’s web traffic doubled in 2008, mostly because it was featured in search listings. The European Commission concluded that the company had abused its dominance and in 2017 €2.42 billion, a record at the time. “Those emails were quoted selectively and out of context,” McAlister said. fined the company Reback, the antitrust lawyer, said there is a limit to how internal communications can be used, especially when they’re written by lower-level employees. In general, anticompetitive intent is not part of the legal argument, he said. Rather, lawyers for the plaintiff or the government must establish an anticompetitive effect. "I didn’t mean to imply that we’d be buying them to prevent them from competing with us in any way.…" Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Internal communications from higher-level executives that show apparent anticompetitive intent may have more weight—or at least, generate more publicity. The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, which held last week’s hearing, collected text messages in which a Facebook executive suggested that CEO Mark Zuckerberg would go into “destroy mode” if Instagram turned down an acquisition offer. The committee also released an email Zuckerberg wrote musing that “there are network effects around social products” and buying companies like Instagram “will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again.” He sent another email less than an hour later that, “I didn’t mean to imply that we’d be buying them to prevent them from competing with us in any way.… I’m mostly excited about what the companies could do together if we worked to build what they’ve invented into more people’s experiences.” clarifying During its 2012 antitrust investigation into Google, the FTC also collected emails, some of which Alphabet’s legal team would have frowned at. In one, Google’s top economist, Hal Varian, celebrated that market research firm Comscore had undervalued Google’s market share. “From an antitrust perspective,” Varian wrote, “I’m happy to see them underestimate our share.” The FTC ultimately overrode staff recommendations to take legal action against Google and closed the investigation without filing charges. Credits Originally published as " " with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. To Head Off Regulators, Google Makes Certain Words Taboo

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