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Comment by suriya-ganesh | Hacker News Reader

There's difference between running on a margin of 5% and 90% at those scale

> There's difference between running on a margin of 5% and 90% at those scale

OP said revenue, not profit. And neither of those numbers are relevant to Google, which runs a 32% (28%) operating (net) margin [1].

That said, yes, Google is the most profitable company in the world [2]. But its $116bn is not in a different league from Microsoft's $102bn, Apple's $99bn or Saudi Aramco's $96bn.

[1] https://s206.q4cdn.com/479360582/files/doc_financials/2025/q...

[2] https://www.financecharts.com/screener/most-profitable

...I kind of don't understand why revenue is ever a useful metric. I imagine I could make a lot of revenue selling hundred dollar bills for $10.

The value of revenue as a metric is that you can't really play financial games to screw with revenue, while there's lots of stuff you can do to inflate or deflate your profit. See, e.g., Hollywood accounting.

Neither revenue nor profit is the full story, though.

> you can't really play financial games to screw with revenue

Accrual accounting gives lots of room for revenue-recognition fuckery [1].

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/revenuerecognition.asp

The claim was "most revenue."

Of course, even you go by most profit, Saudi Aramco still has Google beat, because it turns out that being able to charge highest market price for oil that costs you $5/barrel to make and being around for decades gives you an astounding lifetime net profit.

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