Google headquarters in 2004.
Source: AP
When Google went public on August 19, 2004, the company laid the foundation for its rapid rise. The simple search engine is now one of Big Tech – the five largest IT companies in the world. In 2023, Google’s parent company Alphabet will generate a profit of 73.8 billion US dollars.
How it all began: A revolutionary algorithm
The story of Google begins in 1995 with two computer science doctoral students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at Stanford University. They developed the so-called “PageRank” algorithm, the basis of what would later become the Google search engine.
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In contrast to the competition, “PageRank” not only evaluates the frequency of a search term, but also analyses the quality and number of links to the respective page. This allows the algorithm to deliver more relevant search results.
Google’s headquarters: a garage
Three years later, Page and Brin founded Google Inc. and received $100,000 in start-up capital from German computer scientist Andreas von Bechtolsheim, who joined as an investor.
The company’s headquarters are initially a garage in Menlo Park, California. Google generates billions in revenue from advertising in search results lists. The small start-up quickly becomes a dynamic growth company.
From search engine provider to global tech giant
When Google went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, the company was already a major player on the Internet. The IPO did not go as well as hoped: Google only raised about half of the planned 3.3 billion US dollars. But within a few years the share price multiplied.
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Google becomes one of the most valuable companies in the world and expands into various tech areas. The company buys the mobile operating system Android and the video portal YouTube, and launches the map service Google Maps, the web browser Chrome and other applications.
Billions in revenue thanks to advertising
The most lucrative advertising system remains Google Ads. Three quarters of the group’s turnover comes from advertising revenue, which is generated primarily through the search engine and YouTube.
Marcel Waldvogel from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) explains that Google has developed an entire ecosystem around this advertising, with the sole aim of delivering this advertising efficiently.
Google wouldn’t work without advertising.
Marcel Waldvogel, Chaos Computer Club
On the numerous platforms offered by Google, information about users is stored using cookies, which can be used to display personalized advertising. It is more lucrative for advertising companies to target the target group specifically, as this is more likely to generate sales.
Users share their private lives with Google
The more data there is about user interests, the better the advertising, explains Patrick Seemann from the CCC. For example, most browsers such as Safari or Firefox block cookies for data protection reasons. “Google cannot block them because 80 percent of its revenue comes from advertising,” says Seemann.
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This is questionable in terms of data protection. Jochim Selzer from the CCC explains: “A look at your Google dashboard shows when you entered which search terms, where you were, which files you saved, which videos you watched and which apps you installed on your (Android) smartphone. This data allows detailed statements to be made about you.”
The more centralized we make the network, the more dangerous it becomes if these central nodes fall into the wrong hands.
Jochim Selzer, Chaos Computer Club
Google’s market power also gives the company “the power to define how we use the Internet,” says Selzer. Other hosts and email providers are forced to adhere to Google’s technical standards, otherwise emails would not be forwarded to Google users, for example, or the search engine ranking of their websites would suffer.
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