Ben Gilbert: prediction

Transcript context

…No need to put ads in Google Earth. It’s so crazy. In the mid-2000s, ARPU would eventually grow $10, $20, $30, and always a Google toolbar user was stickier than a non-toolbar user. They just had more and more and more budget to play with in acquiring users. Not to spoil too much, but obviously this still plays out all the way to the much debated apple Safari deal today, and the tens of billions of dollars that Google still pays to Apple in traffic acquisition costs. The takeaway here is, yes, they had the best product. Yes, it was fast. Yes, it was the best technically competent. Yes, they had this amazing culture. But everyone forgets about the fact that they were so aggressive in distribution deals. They didn’t just let people magically find their way to Google. And it was also strategic. As I’ve been talking to people over the last month about making this episode, talking to friends, thinking about how to position it, this first Google episode feels like when we made the Costco episode. It’s the same beautiful ballet where every piece of the Google business model works together and reinforces the other pieces, and in concert it creates the best business model of all time.…

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