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Comment by C7H8N4O2 | Hacker News Reader

> In the case of maps, there weren't many great alternatives for a long time, due to Google sucking all the oxygen/profit potential out of the field with their excellent free offerings.

There was a related discussion[0] on HN a few weeks ago that I found enlightening. Commentator ucaetano's phrasing of the strategy was "create a desert of profitability around you". The discussion of moats vs deserts found here [1] is also useful.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047348 "Laws of Tech Economics: Commoditize Your Complement"

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17048492

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Almost every conversation I've had with someone working at a startup in this city inevitably turns to the "so, are you worried Google will simply start offering your service for free?"

I remember like 3 or 4 years ago having this conversation at a hackathon with a bunch of "Machine Learning" / "Sentiment Analysis" APIs present... right as google started offering both for free on their cloud platform.

Which most likely meant the startup was a feature or a product, not a company with a viable business model.

Being bought/aquihired by Google/others seems to be a business model several companies aim for.

A lot of the time they have enough in house talent to not need to

That doesn't stop other companies seeing it as a viable business model.

That's not a business model for the company. But it is for the investors.

Gmail is free. Does that mean email service is not a product? Why does fastmail exist?

Because there are people (like me) who value their privacy/data.

It is free for consumers, not for organizations. Gmail for consumers doesn't have a business model by itself, but it fits into Google's larger business model.

If it wasn't a viable business model, Google wouldn't move into the space. It's just that they first use their infinite pocket money to kill off all the competition, then switch to making money.

> If it wasn't a viable business model, Google wouldn't move into the space.

Wrong, maybe that "space" (feature or product) goes well with Google's business model, but wouldn't support a viable business mode by itself.

This is funny:

Paul Graham, September 2001:

> "And if you manage to write something that takes off, you may find that you were merely doing market research for Microsoft.”

Google is today's Microsoft :)

Ha, that was me! Thanks for the bump!

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