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GOOGLE IS TURNING ITSELF INTO AN AI
C O M PA N Y A S I T S E E K S T O W I N N E W M A R K E T S
L I K E C L O U D A N D T R A N S P O R TAT I O N
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Google’s next big thing will likely come from
one of its new priority areas, like cloud,
transportation, and healthcare. Each has a
massive, global addressable market and plays
well to Google’s strength in AI.
As the digital world evolves, Google is taking a multi-pronged
approach to maintaining its dominance in the search and ad
business, which makes up the vast majority of its revenue.
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Table of VII Alphabet’s structure and background
Google’s priorities:
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CORPORATE STRATEGY, MICROSOFT
T R U S T E D B Y T H E W O R L D ’ S L E A D I N G C O M PA N I E S
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Alphabet’s structure
and background
Alphabet is broken out into its core Google business and a
number of other subsidiaries, which it deems “Other Bets.”
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Google’s Other Bets include:
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Embrace an AI-centric
approach and solidify lead
in machine learning
Artificial intelligence is critical to Alphabet’s long-term outlook.
AI is the thread that runs through search & advertising, cloud,
autonomous driving, healthcare, and a host of the company’s
Other Bets, as we’ll outline futher below.
Investments
Google has also launched a fund to build out its capabilities for
Google Assistant, Google’s virtual assistant that uses natural
language processing to take voice commands from users and
search the internet, schedule events, set alarms, among a host of
other tasks. Launched in May, the Google Assistant Investment
Program is focused specifically on early-stage startups working
with Google’s virtual assistant.
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Google is also investing internally in its machine learning
capabilities by ramping up its R&D spend, which it largely
dedicates to its main areas of strategic focus (such as search
and machine learning). In 2017, Google tracked at the high-end
of FAMGA in terms of R&D spend in absolute dollars as well as
relative to sales.
The company has also ramped up its capex spend, which largely
funds its computing infrastructure. (We outline this in further
detail below.)
Acquisitions
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One of the company’s initial forays into AI and machine
learning was its $600M acquisition of AI startup DeepMind
in January 2014. DeepMind currently operates as a subsidiary
of Alphabet, and has been a pioneer in the machine learning
space, with its program beating a human world champion in
the board game “Go.”
Product Launches
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Google is also buildling out its own hardware manufacturing
capabilities for its in-house products, known as the Made by
Google line. This includes the Pixel smartphone, the Chromebook
laptop, and the Google Home smart home device.
Patents
Within Google AI sits the Google Brain team, which has led the
charge in developing TensorFlow, Google’s open-source software
library. The team also improves core capabilities from translation
to voice search.
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Note: Patterned columns may be incomplete due to the delay between patent filing
and publication.
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Google has also focused heavily on speech recognition and
natural language processing. The company’s IP activity around
voice has outpaced FAMGA historically.
Note: Patterned columns may be incomplete due to the delay between patent filing
and publication.
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Note: Patterned columns may be incomplete due to the delay between patent filing
and publication.
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This patent hints at Google’s vision for an automated home that
still relies on instructions from a user.
News
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On the digital assistant front, Google is making notable headway
to differentiate its assistant from Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.
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Earnings Transcripts
Though artificial intelligence has been a key focus for over a year,
Google’s mentions of “AI” and “machine learning” on earnings
calls reached a new peak in Q2’18.
Called Duplex, the technology is the first of its kind among even
the most advanced digital assistants and ushers in a new stage
in the race for voice and AI supremacy.
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The below image — taken from Google’s 2017 patent application
for similar technology — outlines a simplified version of one of
these conversations.
Google’s vision to dominate the smart home market and own the
entire stack of hardware devices ties in closely with the digital
assistant. The company has focused on its presence in hardware
to build out its devices end-to-end, in part to relieve rising costs
from third-party hardware manufacturers and also for more
seamless integration between its software and hardware.
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Why Is This A Priority?
AI substantially impacts just about all of Alphabet’s
businesses and stands to upend a number of large industries.
By differentiating itself across its businesses through machine
learning, Alphabet can better solidify its dominance in search
and advertising.
Market sizings
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2
Grow share in the
cloud market
Google currently ranks third among cloud providers, after Amazon
and Microsoft. However, the company has built out its presence
in the space through a number of investments, acquisitions, and
internal efforts. It has also launched multiple initiatives to better
compete with other tech giants.
On its Q4’17 earnings call, the company announced that its cloud
business is now bringing in $1B per quarter. The number of
cloud deals worth $1M+ that Google has sold more than tripled
between 2016 and 2017, and G Suite, Google’s set of cloud-based
productivity applications, had over 4 million paying customers.
Investments
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CEO Pichai has also attributed rising capex spend — which
includes the cost of data centers, machinery, real estate, and
information technology — to building out the cloud business. As
he detailed on the Q1’17 earnings call:
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Acquisitions
Product Launches
Now, Google sees the most opportunity for its cloud business
on the enterprise side. The company brought in VMWare’s Diane
Greene to run its enterprise offering, which has given birth to a
number of enterprise-focused products, including G Suite.
As its built out its enterprise business, the company has landed
several reputable partnerships with major corporations, including
Cisco, Salesforce, and SAP, and is focused on strengthening
its capabilities not just in cloud services but also in its go-to-
market strategy.
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As CEO Pichai noted on the company’s Q4’17 earnings call:
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Where It’s Going Next
News
Earnings Transcripts
Even though cloud has been top-of-mind for Google for several
years now, mentions of cloud and cloud-related products
reached a new peak in Q2’18, suggesting that the company sees
increasing opportunity in the space.
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Google sees a number of opportunities to leverage its expertise
across other verticals (like content and digital commerce) in order
to get its foot in the door with enterprises facing a growing need
for cloud services.
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Despite trailing behind Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud space,
Google has an opportunity to capture some business from these
competitors as customers seek expertise in machine learning, an
area where Google remains differentiated.
Market sizing
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3
Build out a network
infrastructure for computing
What It’s Doing Now
Investments
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On the network infrastructure front, Google has built out a data
center network to support its growing cloud business. The
company currently operates 15 data centers across the globe
(8 in the US, 4 in Europe, 2 in Asia, and 1 in South America) which
house its compute, storage, and data replication services.
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“For a specialized class of problems,
quantum computers can solve them
exponentially faster. For instance, if
we are successful with our 72 qubit
prototype, it would take millions of
conventional computers to be able to
emulate it.”
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Google has also developed hardware that can support quantum
computing. For example, its Bristlecone chip currently holds the
record number of “qubits.”
News
Earnings Transcripts
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Why Is This A Priority?
As Google increases its capabilities in machine learning and
cloud, it will need to build out the infrastructure to support it,
such as fiber-optic cables. According to the company’s SVP for
technical infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, Google needs to double its
transmission capacity each year to maintain its core businesses.
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Protect advertising
business from rising
competition in digital —
especially from Amazon
What It’s Doing Now
With Amazon’s recent rise to the top of e-commerce, Google has
lost a substantial amount of its product advertising volume, which
makes up roughly 60% of the company’s ad clicks. Additionally,
both Amazon and Apple have spent billions on content and music
services to make their media/app platforms stickier, posing
a direct threat to Google’s ability to dominate its advertising
business across platforms.
Product Launches
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Google has also launched several services in the content space
to make its broader platform stickier. Through its Google Play
platform, users can access the Android app store, as well as
music, magazines, books, movies, and television programs —
competing with Amazon’s multitude of Prime services aimed at
content consumption and Apple’s suite of content offerings.
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Where It’s Going Next
Earnings Transcripts
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“On the commerce front, obviously, it’s
a natural sector I think for us to drive
partnerships. We already have deep
advertising relationships with many of
these providers, increasingly. Shopping
is an area where we are beginning to
work together. And finally, I think cloud is
another important way by which we can
start working together.”
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Why This Initiative?
When it comes to digital commerce, Google’s main objective
is to protect its advertising business from all angles. Product
search is a critical component of Google’s business, and the
company cannot afford to lose more of that business to
e-commerce giant Amazon.
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5
Expand in India &
Southeast Asia, rebuild
presence in China
A number of Google’s recent investments, partnerships, and
internal projects suggest an interest in building out a presence
in India and Southeast Asia, two regions that are experiencing
outsized growth in internet usage.
Investments
In addition to India and Southeast Asia, Google has set its eyes
on China, despite historical setbacks in the country.
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While many view China as a missed opportunity for Google, the
company has stepped up its investments in the region. Recent
investments include a $550M investment in JD.com, China’s
second-largest e-commerce platform, and a $76M investment
in China-based gaming firm Chushou.
Product Launches
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News
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Earnings transcripts
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This presents a substantial opportunity for Google’s expansion.
Market sizings
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Conclusion
Google’s efforts to defend its moat in the search and advertising
space span a variety of initiatives. The company is tackling the
consumer and enterprise experiences from multiple angles,
many of which have already shown themselves to be proven
areas of growth.
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