Google's Toughest Search Is for a Business Model (2002)

nytimes.com

23 points·themichael··8 comments

Google had already found a viable business model when this article was written. They were profitable in 2001 and went on to make $99M in net income on $348M in revenue in 2002. This was not public knowledge at the time since Google was still a private company. That's something to keep in mind when people speculate about today's private startups.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/0001193125040...

Agreed. People talk about Twitter's revenue model - though in reality they are getting undisclosed amounts from several sources (not just Google and Microsoft).

whats twitter's revenue model , the fire hose ?

So far, yes it seems

Some wonderful quotes in this one: "The days of investing in Web sites we love are over," said Lanny Baker, a Salomon Smith Barney analyst. "People rave about Google. But as a business, it will take an awful lot for them to catch up to Overture."

I wonder where Lanny Baker is these days?

CFO of ZipRealty, says google.

In the late ninties there must have been dozens of articles about the crazyness of Amazon, how each book they sell makes them lose more money, and so on.

We should never underestimate the stupidity of Nobel Laureates in Wall Street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTCM

"When Genius Failed" is a phenomenal and highly recommended book on LTCM.

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