Digital white-horse or annoying militant? A Google story
From Digital Utopia to Market Monetization: The Evolution of Blogger and Google’s Shifting Paradigm
More than two decades ago, Blogger emerged as an incredible platform that gave a voice to geeks around the world on the internet. As time progressed, the platform became an indispensable social space for all types of voices, from a grandmother’s cooking blog to political activists.
This free platform fit well into Google’s overall strategy at the time, which aimed to increase content and traffic to boost advertising revenue. This win-win approach was embedded in Google’s DNA, offering free web hosting, email servers, voicemail systems, news aggregators, etc.
After 20 years, Google deemed the market mature enough to start monetizing these legacy free services. The free email solution, Google Apps, was replaced by G Suite and then by Workspace. What was once free quickly turned into a significant contributor to Google Cloud Division’s $36 billion revenue.
Over time, Google did not drastically change the Blogger platform, maintaining its surprising stability for a digital product. Some saw this as a sign of an impending retirement, but year after year, Blogger survived Google’s retirement selection process.
Unfortunately, while Blogger maintained its original ethos, the company as a whole evolved. The founders stepped back, and the digital libertarian spirit of the early years was gradually fading away and maybe replaced by "lululemon" employees who embraced visible and trendy causes, which, regrettably, promoted divisions in the real world.
A few Californian brand marketing advisors still promote old ideas like corporations need to have strong political engagement to fit into their community. However, real consumers do not expect companies to be activists.
Customers look for the best products at the best prices. Therefore, it is not compatible with adding additional costs of activism to the invoices.
Customers are willing to directly funding the causes they support. No need for an unrelated 3rd party, making uncontrolled choices based on “lululemon employees” ideas.
Google has faced several backlashes with biases that are visibly misaligned with its customer base. Fortunately for Google, its central position in the digital market has saved it from situations like those faced by the beer brand Bud Light or the retailer Target.
It remains to be seen how many times Google can navigate these situations without impacting its bottom line.
Think encore !