

Is Google the Wal-Mart of the web? - ritubpant
http://applicant.com/is-google-the-wal-mart-of-the-web/

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mediaman
Not very useful commentary. All they are saying is that like Wal-Mart, Google
is big, which they have done by offering things people want.

A much better comparison to Wal-Mart is Amazon, which at least is in a similar
industry, engages with a similarly complex supply chain, and has a far more
analogous business model.

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RyanMcGreal
Some sloppy reasoning here:

> For example, the newspaper industry is quickly crumbling - they lost $7.5
> billion in ad revenue in 2008. The public gets irate at the mention of
> paying for online news.

Traditional media and online media alike are based on advertising revenue, not
on readers/viewers paying for the news. People won't pay for news online for
the same reason they wouldn't pay for news on TV or even in print.
Subscription charges for newspapers and magazines, like TV cable/satellite
bills, pay for content _distribution_ , not content _creation_.

Given that readers/viewers already pay the distribution charges for their
internet connection, they balk at paying again for the creation of content
that they're long accustomed to getting for free.

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HeyLaughingBoy
_"No company can compete with free."_

I'm getting really tired of seeing this.

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crux
Wal-Mart is despised and loathed because they have borderline-abusive policies
towards their employees, because a Wal-Mart store has the capacity to
completely disrupt the entire established ecosystem—that's been there for
decades or more—of a community, and because they contribute to a leveling-out
of cultural diversity in favor of a single lowest-common-denominator
monoculture. None of these things are true about Google.

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nathanb
Let's see...they don't abuse their employees, they compete on quality, they
frequently expand through acquisition rather than duplication, they're not
known for exploiting third-world countries, and they appear at least mildly
interested in being a good citizen in their community.

So I'm going to go with "no".

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tybris
No, Amazon is.

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joubert
At least Google's customers don't get stampeded to death by peers as they
enter the premises.

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known
I think Google is the Advertising Company of the Web.

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tumult
No

