When macroeconomic conditions were good, digital giants (such as Facebook or Google) funded an incredible number of projects before liquidating most of the developed products. But today the crisis is forcing everyone to cut costs. And Google is no exception. In January of this year, Mountain View announced it was laying off 12,000 employees. “[…] we have conducted a thorough review of all product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a letter to employees. A week after this announcement, we have a glimpse of the projects most affected by this Google downsizing. For example, in a previous article we reported that Google reduced the number of people working on the Fuchsia OS operating system by 16%, with an average reduction within the group of 6%. And like Fuchsia OS, Google’s startup incubator, Area 120, has also been hit hard. This is stated in an article published this week by TechCrunch.
Three Google startups weathered the storm
However, three startups from the Google incubator would have survived it. grand household chores. And one of them is especially interesting: Liist. Perhaps you have never heard of it. But it could be Google’s new weapon against TikTok. First, while most of Area 120’s startups were created internally, Liist was acquired by Google. In an August post, Liist announced to users the acquisition as well as the closure of son application. Prior to joining Area 120, Liist raised $1.1 million, according to TechCrunch. Its app is a kind of bookmark for the social networks TikTok and Instagram, which allows you to save the places that appear in the publications that the user looks at on these platforms. Therefore, people have used this application to find inspiration for trips or walks or plan them with their friends. But that’s not all. The product that the Liist team will release may be very different from what was offered before the Google acquisition. Either way, the goal remains the same: Generation Z, who spends a lot of time on TikTok or Instagram. According to TechCrunch, one of Liist’s co-founders said on son LinkedIn profile that son the team is working on a Gen Z product at the Area 120 incubator. And everyone knows that. But in any case, this product is probably promising if Google decided to keep the project, despite the company’s cost reduction.
Tiktok, a menace for Maps and Google Search
Either way, it’s okay that Google is looking to seduce young people. On YouTube, the transformation has already happened. Network social Google has been offering a TikTok-like format for some time now called Shorts, which is a hit. But for Google TikTok is also menace to son search engine. “According to our research, about 40% of young people do not use Google Maps or Search when looking for a place to eat. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” said Prabhakar Raghavan, vice president. senior to Google, in an interview in 2022. And he possible that Liist’s product is Google’s answer to this concern. Since this team survived the downsizing of Mountain View, the next step should be to launch a new app or integrate the product with another Google service such as Maps or Google Search. The other two surviving startups are Aloud and Check. The first is a tool that helps creators dub their videos into multiple languages, which is perfect for YouTube. The second is “a new privacy platform for mobile app developers that helps create a more secure digital ecosystem by making it easier for development teams and the apps they create to maintain privacy.”