Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google –Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)– told Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang that the company’s search engine will be its focus, just as Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) –now Meta– is going “all in” on the metaverse.
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The Future
Even though several tech companies have already launched into a race to develop their own metaverse –a virtual space where people can connect and interact thanks to augmented reality– Google believes that the future still lies in internet searches.
During the Bloomberg interview, Pichai commented that he too believes the metaverse will be the next great digital revolution, and computers will increasingly have a completely ubiquitous presence in people's lives. However, despite attempts by Facebook to appropriate a concept like the metaverse, Pichai stresses the opposite.
"I think the metaverse means different things to many people. For me, it is the evolution of computing into something more immersive, but within that, there will be many different experiences. It is the evolution of the internet, yes, but it will not belong to any specific company."
In addition, although there is currently a craze among big technology for the metaverse –or metaverses– Pichai ensures that his search engine continues to be Google’s greatest ambition and objective as a company.
Google’s Mission
"Our mission is timeless. Today, there is a greater need to organize information than ever before. People will want radically many more conversational experiences. They may want to speak to the search engine, or they will see something and ask what that information means," Pichai points out.
"Being able to adapt to that change and develop internet search will continue to be our greatest opportunity," he adds.
Google achieved a $2 trillion market capitalization after a solid third quarter, and since Sundar Pichai took the reins of the company in 2019, he has focused on promoting cloud services, in addition to betting on artificial intelligence.
Currently, Google's main source of income is online advertising thanks to its search engine. In the last quarter, the company posted revenue of $65 billion, of which $53 billion came from said business.
Google and Facebook are part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.
