Since this post was written in 2011, google’s revenues have roughly tripled:
Since this post was written in 2011, google’s revenues have roughly tripled. In 2014, google made $65.67b in revenues. In 2015, google made 74.5b. In 2016, google made 89.46b. For fiscal year 2017, google reported revenues of $110.8 billion. In 2018, google made 136.22b. Now, it’s easy to say that number and smile and nod like we understand how much money it is, but I doubt any of us really appreciates the sheer enormity of what we’re talking about.
So, I thought it might be fun to try to illustrate exactly how much money google makes.
Let’s write it out
This may sound obvious, but I think writing the number out is an important first step. The financial industry has a way of using shorthand to hide gigantic numbers. They can say things like “we only made $1b in profits last year!” with a straight face, as if they’re implying “c’mon, guys, it’s just a 1 (the smallest non-zero integer there is) followed by a ‘b’ (only the 2nd letter in the alphabet). It’s hardly anything!”
So, let’s write it out in all its glory, just to keep from fooling ourselves
The color scheme has no significance – I just thought it was pretty. You can’t prove I didn’t.
$29b = 29 taj mahals
One of the most famous homes ever Austria Business Fax List built, the taj mahal has ample living space at 500,000 square feet and 16 bathrooms. According to the internet, building your own taj mahal today would run you just over $1b us dollars. Google could build 29 every year:
29 taj mahals
Even if larry, sergey, and eric each have a summer and winter taj majal, that still leaves 23 for the rest of the staff to live in.
$29b = 17,000 bugatti veyrons
The most expensive production car of 2011, according to forbes, is the bugatti veyron 16.4, coming in at a sticker price of just $1.7m. Google could Email Lists drive 17,058 of these bad boys off of the lot, but let’s call it an even 17,000, after your trade-in and destination fees. This is a bugatti veyron (yeah, it’s pretty sweet):
If a bugatti isn’t your style, maybe you’d like the latest justin bieber album, “never say never” – it retails for $7.99 on itunes. The cover looks something like this (the lightning bolts are magical bieber aura.