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Comment by Eueudhsbsj32

9 hours ago

I'm all for breaking up Google, but how do you see Chrome making money without ads?

If they charged users directly, everyone would just switch back to Firefox.

4 comments

Eueudhsbsj32

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bogwog  8 hours ago

Why does 'Chrome' need to survive as a standalone company? It never had a business model besides "support Google's monopolies", so it shouldn't survive (IMO). Lots of browser vendors already use Chrome's open source codebase, so those orgs can fork it, or they can collectively come together to fund development, or apply for government grants or something.

I think that Chrome development team members will have plenty of new job and business opportunities available to them if this ever happens. New markets will open up for browser tech that didn't exist before, and I think everyone will come out winning in the end, even users who would never even consider paying money for a web browser.

  • someaccount1234  7 hours ago

    > Why does 'Chrome' need to survive as a standalone company? It never had a business model besides "support Google's monopolies", so it shouldn't survive (IMO)

    You just explicitly claimed that Chrome has definitively a viable business model as a stand-alone company ("Short answer? Yes. Long answer? Definitely."). Now you claim the opposite...

    Is the argument also as strong for the other cases?

    • bogwog  7 hours ago

      Sorry, I forgot this was HN and wasn't obnoxious enough in my reply.

      The original question was:

      > Would Chrome, Android, and YouTube be viable companies without the money-printing engine that is Google’s ad business?

      Please take note of the absence of the word "standalone" in that quote.

      My response to the response to my response (henceforth responses['bogwog'][1]) was thus:

      > Why does 'Chrome' need to survive as a standalone company? ...

      Please note the truthiness of `'standlone' in responses['bogwog'][1]`

      From this evidence we can surmise that my point was 'Chrome' the non-business can't survive as an independent business, because Chrome is not a business. Likewise, the 'Complimentary Cheez-Its' you get on an airplane can't survive as an independent business were we to break up the airline, as 'Complimentary Cheez-Its' isn't a business.

      But can Chrome the project survive without Google? I say yes, just like Cheez-Its can survive without being complimentary additions to overpriced flights. For why I think that, please refer to my other comment in this thread.

      Thank you.