Google

Google’s existing CEO Sundar Pichai is now also parent company Alphabet, following the departure of the company’s co-founders from the top of the organisation.  Larry Page is stepping down as CEO of Alphabet, while Sergey Brin is vacating his role as President of the company. Sign up for Which-50’s Irregular

Takeovers of smaller rivals by digital platforms, including their data sets, may pose a threat to consumers’ choice and privacy according to Rod Sims, chairman of the ACCC.  “Few consumers are fully informed of, nor can they effectively control, how their data is going to be used and shared,” Sims

Consumers comprehensively reject the practice of brands, publishers and platforms tracking their internet behaviour without their explicit consent, according to research commissioned by Which-50. Yet few sites or services allow for this, and instead assume implicit acceptance based on terms and conditions which few consumers have read — and even

Google today announced it is making Youtube “more shoppable” with the introduction of advertisements to the video platform’s search results and home feed. Youtube search result ads will be based on users’ search terms. Google’s example is a user searching for a video review on Puma running shoes. The ad,

Google has bought wearable company Fitbit for US$2.1 billion, reshaping the wearable technology market and giving the tech giant another outlet for income.  The transaction is expected to close in 2020, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Fitbit’s stockholders and regulatory approvals, including concerns over user privacy and

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, released Q3 results today showing its revenue and operating income growing from the prior year but net income falling.  Analysts are blaming Google’s investment in cloud computing for the drop in net income. The company has been building data centres, buying equipment, and hiring various staff

The ACCC has begun legal proceedings against Google in Australia, alleging the search giant engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations to consumers about the personal location data Google collects, keeps and uses.  The legal action follows the watchdog’s long-running investigation into digital platforms and their market

Big consumer tech companies continue to dominate Interbrand’s list of the world’s most valuable brands in 2019, while B2B software vendors like Adobe, Salesforce and Microsoft are some of the fastest growing brands globally. Interbrand, which developed a methodology to put a dollar value on brand, released its annual list

When it comes to important software tools in the advertising ecosystem, most conversations start with Google/YouTube. Google collects somewhere on the order of half of all global online ad revenue, has millions of advertiser customers — and likely millions of end-users for its advertising tools. Google updates these tools often.

This year, the world’s four most valuable companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet — all signalled a new or renewed push into gaming. The tech giants all want a bigger share of what market researcher NewZoo says is a $US152 billion gaming market, currently growing at 9.6 per cent