
$800M to support small businesses and crisis response - theBashShell
https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/commitment-support-small-businesses-and-crisis-response-covid-19
======
baby
I don't know why people always expect companies to do things the government
should do. And when they do things that the government should do, they then
say the the company could do more. It's false. The government could do more.
And if they're out of money they should tax these companies more then.

~~~
randomsearch
What if the people don’t support taxation, or the companies avoid it?

~~~
baby
If you don't support taxes usually you go live in exile in the middle of
nowhere. If you want infrastructure, schools, firemen, police, etc. then you
support taxes.

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heinrichhartman
This is NOT _funding_ :

\- $250 million in ad grants ...

\- $340 million in Google Ads credits ...

\- A pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits ...

A company that has a Bazillion $ in the bank, has means to really make a
difference. This is not.

Edit/Clarification:

The original title was: "$800M funding and grants to support ..". Now they
changed it.

I take issue with the claim of providing funding, and all they offer is free
ADs. I appreciate that Google is doing _something_. I don't think they have
to. I don't think that free ADs is a thing that people need right now.

~~~
onlyrealcuzzo
Why does a company with a Bazillion dollars in the bank need to be a charity?
If we agree that's the case, we should tax companies more. If not, what's the
problem?

~~~
danans
I tend to agree with you (and I'm a Googler), but good luck passing that tax
legislation in the next few days. This emergency is now. There will be plenty
of time to evaluate the degree to which our country has disabled and defunded
government institutions, leaving us vulnerable in this sort of crisis - but
first we have to get to the other side of the crisis.

We should acknowledge the fact that these corporations are acting now, while
keeping the perspective that the cash they are spending isn't in government
coffers to spend on this pandemic in part because of the low corporate taxes.

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the_duke
With all the negative press on Google, I was expecting this to be a decent PR
move.

Reading the announcement is somewhat sobering though.

Most of it (590 million) are ad "credits" or "grants". Keep in mind that
Google ad revenue in 2019 was 134 billion.

> $250 million in ad grants to help the World Health Organization (WHO) and
> more than 100 government agencies globally provide critical information on
> how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other measures to help local
> communities.

It seems odd to me that institutions are supposed to resort to advertising to
be shown above all the false, misleading and inaccurate information.

Is the WHO supposed to have a marketing team optimizing ad spending on Google
during a pandemic to rank higher than inferior sources?

There ought the be ranking mechanisms or other side channels to keep important
information on top in case of a crisis.

This is like fixing a leaking pipe by forcing in water from the outside.

Edit: apparently all ads relating to Coronavirus have been blocked. See below.

\--- Small beneficial side effect: for Google: this drives up the prices a bit
for pharma and other companies trying to profit with Corona related topics.

> $340 million in Google Ads credits available to all SMBs with active
> accounts over the past year.

This sounds decent at first, but also seems more like a token gift on further
thought.

I reckon the goal here is mainly to avoid losing those customers. Many SMBs
are closed, struggling, and will reduce expenses where possible. Marketing is
often the easiest to cut right away, and many of those might not return
anytime soon.

The hardest hit businesses are those that had to close down (restaurants,
shops, etc). They won't be spending money now.

While a small, free marketing budget is good to have , it will also help
stabilize/raise prizes more quickly once everything opens again.

This way they keep those customers at least somewhat engaged and can also prop
up the numbers a bit.

> A $200 million investment fund that will support NGOs and financial
> institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access
> to capital.

This is certainly the most impactful. Assuming 70% of that money reaches
businesses, it could amount in 14_000 loans of 10_000 each.

I'd assume those to be loans though, so the fund probably won't be much of a
loss in the medium term.

~~~
summerlight
> Is the WHO seriously supposed to have a marketing team optimizing ad
> spending on Google during a pandemic so they rank higher than some
> "Coronavirus is a hox" article?

Google recently blocked advertisements around COVID19 and related issues.
Would you please at least look it up before making this kind of assumptions?

[https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-
announcements/...](https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-
announcements/coronavirus-covid19-response/)

~~~
the_duke
> Google recently blocked advertisements around COVID19

I hadn't seen that, thanks for pointing it out.

There are still ads for terms like "breathing mask" though, so it could
probably be circumvented to some extent. But that's to be expected and
probably unavoidable.

Especially in light of these efforts, it still seems weird to me though to
encourage institutions to use ads for information.

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neiman
Lol they offer free ads because there's a financial crisis, they probably lost
of customers and they're trying to attract new ones.

Fine. I offer free ads for 3 months worth 1B$ in my website, can I use it now
for PR as well?:-)

~~~
compiler-guy
This offer only goes to accounts that have been active in the past year, so it
is not a play for new accounts.

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legitster
I think we are are seeing the first images of how organizations are trying to
fight the massive forces of deflation - no one wants to be the first to start
cutting prices. You'll see companies giving away or donating more and more of
their inventory or product, but I think it's inevitable that prices in certain
sectors of the economy will start coming down.

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blunderkid
Very magnanimous of big G! Obliging us with virtual trinkets that cost them
nothing when most of us be out of jobs soon and a few really unlucky ones may
die. Bet their PR department is made up of lawyers only. Complete lack of
empathy and imagination. Full marks for greed and being clever by half. Let’s
see if other companies in valley follow their “lead” in hand waving or
actually do something that matters.

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dessant
I think Google could afford to spend a couple billions more to fund the
manufacturing and distribution of masks and ventillators, instead of
announcing a support package with the bulk in ad credits.

Also, Google employs some of the best marketers on the planet, they should be
showing ads for how to wear masks correctly and for practical safety
guidelines, and leverage everything they've learned about human psychology to
disperse information that could save lives.

That's what it means to actually want to do something, not just pretend with
ad credits that ultimately boost your own business.

Right now I'm getting an ad for Milka chocolate as I watch news videos about
the pandemic on YouTube, instead of being offered a chance to learn how to
safely disinfect groceries.

Google does not need to give out ad credits to WHO to be able to run public
safety ads today across all AdSense sites. They have the money and the talent
to spin up a massive public safety campaign within days.

~~~
izacus
Did you miss the last bullet point?

> Direct financial support and expertise to help increase the production
> capacity for personal protective equipment (PPE) and lifesaving medical
> devices. We’re working with our longtime supplier and partner Magid Glove &
> Safety, with the goal of ramping up production of 2-3 million face masks in
> the coming weeks that will be provided to the CDC Foundation. Additionally,
> employees from across Alphabet, including Google, Verily and X, are bringing
> engineering, supply chain and healthcare expertise to facilitate increased
> production of ventilators, working with equipment manufacturers,
> distributors and the government in this effort.

~~~
dessant
Google has announced a $800+ billion support package for small businesses and
crisis response, $810 billion of that are ad credits and an investment fund
for small businesses. There is certainly more that Google could do to fund the
manufacturing and distribution of life-saving equipment, even if they do
mention it in the last bullet point, without clarifying the amount of
financial support.

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itsdrewmiller
“ A $200 million investment fund that will support NGOs and financial
institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to
capital. As one example, we’re working with the Opportunity Finance Network in
the U.S. to help fill gaps in financing for people and communities underserved
by mainstream financial institutions. This is in addition to the $15 million
in cash grants Google.org is already providing to nonprofits to help bridge
these gaps for SMBs.”

What does this really mean? Aside from the NGO stuff it sounds like it could
just be taking advantage of the downturn to buy businesses?

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vagab0nd
> The ad credits will be available to small and medium businesses, who
> advertise ... since the beginning of 2019.

Why since the beginning of 2019? If I just started a business at beginning of
2020, wouldn't I need at least equal amount of help, if not more?

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orasis
The $340 million in Google Ads credits is self serving bullcrap. They are
going to flood their ad markets with credits so that they can keep CPMs
inflated so that the real advertisers have to continue paying inflated prices.

~~~
humanbeinc
This! Although one could argue for inflationary effects, Google keeps prices
stable and that is their main concern here

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andrewpheonix
I appreciate Google's efforts, but it's really depressing to realize how
terrible we have it in the Third World and how hard or how little of these
funds will trickle down to the people and orgs on the fore fronts.

If I was in the US now, my company and staff would qualify for a large number
of help avenues, not to even speak of grants for our work on COVID 19. Over
here? The AWS bill we pay monthly has doubled...because our currency has
fallen that much. I won't meet payroll on Monday because clients have paused
their work and payments to us...etc

Meanwhile here is all manner of funds seemingly available but just another new
extra requirement out of reach.

As usual, the beneficiaries will be larger orgs and their army of consultants
and friends.

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pixelbath
Meanwhile, I'm still sitting with ~$80 USD in an AdSense account that's been
there for over 10 years because it's still not a large enough amount to pay
out.

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Donald
I assume the free ad credits are to stave off cratering their own CPM market's
bid prices? Conflating that funding with grants for assisting with COVID-19
responses is extremely disingenuous.

~~~
compiler-guy
Except that they aren't conflating the two. They call out each individually.

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cromwellian
No good deed goes unpunished it seems.

------
thetanil
Google to pay themselves 800 million, how nice for small business

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treyfitty
Google is helping small businesses by providing Ad credits? Of all things a
small business may need, Google thinks Ads are the solution? The response to
this crisis has my cynicism and disdain for our system growing every day.

~~~
rsweeney21
I pay for Google ads to generate leads for my business. We've seen a drop in
conversion rate, but we're still generating leads which we really need right
now to continue to operate.

The problem is that the cost per lead just went up dramatically. These ad
credits will solve that problem for us and allow us to continue to generate
leads. This is exactly the kind of help my business needs right now.

~~~
tradertef
Yes, but it is a zero-sum game. When you get leads, someone else is loosing.
So, this does not help economy and does not help all small businesses equally.
It only helps Google as it is free advertisement for them.

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trhway
given the lackluster situation of their Cloud, i think it would have made more
sense to throw those $800M as cloud credits instead of ads.

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onetimemanytime
Nordstrom too, is offering 20% off any purchase of $1200 or more to help
Americans weather this crisis. (joke)

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hienyimba
If Google wants to help small businesses, they should start by stopping their
practice of defrauding it's Adsense publishers.

$30k MRR gone overnight alongside $40k already earned in Adsense income siezed
by Google. All this happened early this month of March, effectively crippling
our ability to take care of employees and survive the Covid-19 crisis.

Such hypocrisy.

~~~
judge2020
In an attempt to cut its own cost, Google effectively automates everything,
even in terms of detecting abuse (eg. clickjacking or click fraud) and
advertisements that go against their rules (I think even in terms of
mentioning Covid-19 in ads since I haven't seen any ads mentioning anything
about "virus"/"covid"/etc at all this month). I wouldn't doubt you got hit by
this automated system.

Maybe you should write a blog on this.

~~~
hienyimba
You would think that by making them so much money (they take 40% of income),
you would be entitled to speak to a human. We have always followed their
guidelines and just appealed to them but from researching others who have had
similar issues, I'm assured that is a big black hole.

~~~
londons_explore
Even if you could talk to them, they wouldn't be able to tell you what you did
wrong.

If they did tell you what you did wrong, you could figure out what the rules
in their spam detecton system was and game the system, and their losses from
you or anyone gaming their adspam detection system are far greater than
loosing a few false positive customers.

Sux for you, but works great for them.

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thedance
It's ridiculous that Google has to front a glove and mask company the working
capital and donate the product to the CDC. That's what the government is
supposed to do. The federal government should be providing interest-free
working capital and guaranteeing the sale of every glove and mask anyone can
produce.

~~~
hueving
>It's ridiculous that Google has to

It doesn't have to. This is a choice Google is making on how it wants to
conduct charity.

>The federal government should be providing interest-free working capital and
guaranteeing the sale of every glove and mask

Sale at what price? It has to be bounded or else it sounds ripe for fraud
(people are monsters).

> anyone can produce.

So is the loan for anyone that wants it? Or just for companies that have
proven they can make gloves and masks? If the former, what stops people from
just using the loan to fund salaries while making a ritual display of making
masks for a few months and then declaring bankruptcy after collecting salaries
during that time?

~~~
blackguardx
I think you are misunderstanding the parent's point. The basic gist is that
any glove, mask, and ventilator manufacturer should at the very least get
immediate working capital loans/grants from the government to expand
production.

Guaranteeing the sale means that the manufacturer will assume no risk for
overproduction. The price would be whatever the prevailing market price was
before the crisis or maybe with a slight premium.

In essence, the government should remove all business risk for manufacturers
of needed equipment.

~~~
kortilla
What makes you think this is not already the case?

