How big is Google today? This mega, mega, mega company brought $60 billion dollars in revenue so far in 2013 alone!? Most of that comes from advertising. How much is $60 billion dollars?
That is bigger than today’s entire newspaper and magazine industry today! Keep in mind that in the mid-2000s, Google’s revenue wasn’t even $10 billion a year. They held steady during the Great Recession of the late 2000s, while other major companies were either hemorrhaging or going out of business altogether. But last year, 2012, that was the first year Google surpassed the magazine and newspaper industries.
But we can’t give all the credit to Google. There’s one Simpsons episode where Grandpa Abe Simpson joked the newspaper industry will be dead before he will. That joke isn’t very far from reality. So far in the 2010s, revenue for these industries was about half the revenue it was in the mid-2000s. Even major newspapers like the Washington Post have been bought out by online gurus like Jeff Bezos. With more people clicking on the Internet, and with more people turning to alternative media, less and less are turning to print media.
But you have to get Google some credit. It was voted one of the most trusted companies in the world today. It’s not just about ad words anymore. It’s about You Tube, Google Maps, Google Glass; I can go on and on! It won’t be long before Google will be bigger than the papers were even back in their heyday. What’s the reason for Google’s massive revenue: it’s rise or other media’s downhill?