The next battle for digital technology supremacy will move to a new domain, and that domain will be controlled by massive permutation on demand (yes, users), at the infrastructure layer, well below the application utility layer. Companies like Google and Facebook understand this redesign, and are doing everything to position themselves.
The playbook is simple: do everything so that head or tail, you win. That is why Google is investing $1 billion in Airtel for 1.28% stake in India even when it had invested in Airtel’s rival, Jio, shipping $4.5 billion for 7.73%.
It is like the same foreign company coming to Nigeria to invest in BUA Cement and Dangote Cement; everyone is happy because the truckloads of money hit the bank accounts. This construct is not typical: companies used to define friends and enemies, but today, in the digital domain, you lose if you think of competition from that angle.
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Yes, you are likely going to be better off if you bring your 100 users and I bring my 90 users, and both of us can claim we have 190 users! In the industrial era economies, that was not possible, but in the digital age, that is the game: partnership.
So, for Google, if Jio has the numbers, great. But if they move to Airtel, great. Irrespective of the outcome, we are sure of one thing: Google will be represented in those playbooks. It is like politics, no permanent enemy or friend, it is all permanent interest. So, Google can invest in India’s largest telcos at the same time. Magical.
Now, you see why I have referred to companies like Google and Facebook as ICT utilities because largely there are limited options in the digital world, if you want to avoid them, just as moving into a neighborhood, and you want to avoid your local water board.
AIMING TO build 5G specific use-cases and bring affordable smartphone offerings to the market, mobile services firm Bharti Airtel and Google announced a long-term agreement Friday that would entail the American internet giant investing $700 million for 1.28 per cent stake in the Delhi-based company, in addition to up to $300 million towards potential multi-year commercial agreements.
“Airtel and Google share the vision to grow India’s digital dividend through innovative products. With our future ready network, digital platforms, last mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem,” Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, said in a statement. Google’s biggest investment in India, however, was a $4.5 billion infusion in Airtel’s chief rival Reliance Jio back in 2020 for which it picked 7.73 per cent stake. The deal also involved building of an entry-level 4G smartphone that was launched last year.
Meanwhile, Apple wants to disintermediate companies like Square by integrating the tap-and-pay functionality in the iPhone. With that feature, some of the core products in Square will not be necessary.
Citing ‘people with knowledge of the matter’, Bloomberg says the company has been working on the new feature since around 2020, when it paid $100 million for Canadian startup Mobeewave.
The feature is likely to provide a setback to Square and the new breed of SoftPOS vendors, by providing the tap-and-pay functionality as an integrated part of the device, with no need for third party help.
Apple may begin rolling out the feature via a software update in the coming months, say Bloomberg sources. The company is expected to release the first beta version of iOS 15.4 in the near future, which is likely to see a final release for consumers as early as the spring.
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Comment: I wouldn’t use Google investments as a yardstick for good investments. For one, Google has so much cash pile than it knows what to do with.
Alphabet, which doesn’t pay a dividend at all is sitting on cash and investments of $168.5 billion. That’s more than 6% of all the S&P 500’s cash in the hands of a single company. And it just keeps piling up. Alphabet isn’t creating enough ideas to soak up these cash, yet it can’t find great Startups or Businesses to invest them into
Of the top four, Amazon tries the best to reinvest its money. That company sure never loses its ability to be Ambitious and Grow. It’s cash reserves as of last year amounted to $86.2 billion. For context, Apple had $190.5bn in cash as of Nov. 2021, Google comes in 2nd at $168.5bn, Microsoft has $137bn stashed away. These are Capital that would have otherwise been put to great use.
I wouldn’t classify Google investments as significant because when you’re investing from a $170bn cash pile that’s only increasing, there is no element of risk to such investment. If it’s not really risky, where’s the fun?
Response: Great point but tell Google to bring some of of those to Abia state Nigeria! The fact that it continues to put this money in one place and not everywhere is significant: it is looking for value.
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Google is hedging its investments, so that whoever gets the trophy, Google will be there to party. Google did not miss class when diversification lesson was going on, so it’s deploying lessons learned from the class.
The network nature of current market requires entities at application level to participate in other layers, to ensure that they are not cut off when the tune changes. So even when Google deploys satellites for internet services, it now has a cooperative ground support, without too much headache.
Those who own universities must pay attention to what’s going on in primary schools…
As for Apple, it needs to allow other platforms to breathe as well, it already owns the base, so once it ventures into what others relying on its base do, it will choke them.