> They’re not interested in anything but profit above all else
Not disagreeing with you, but why is it a surprise to anyone? Any company that seems to be “nice” is only doing that as a good PR increases their profits, which depending on domain may be very important.
> Interesting, but I think it also shows the neutrality of the company --- they would sell to anyone, regardless of what their technology was being used for.
>Are they looking to profit? Sure. Does that mean that profit is the only motive? I don't think so. It takes guts to jump into a totally different area from what a company primarily does.
Not that much guts needed, when you have billions at your command. It would be more gutsy if it was a much less rich company doing it. That's not to say that it is a bad thing, though.
> I wish other companies would take a cue from them and be as transparent about their goals and progress. (...) Who needs a marketing team when you can casually throw out your plans to go to another planet within a few years and have people know you mean it?
I wish. Most other companies can't do that simply because they have no grand goal worth talking about. It's understandable. I don't want my local bakery to talk about feeding the world, because I know their sole purpose is to provide for people working there in exchange for bread customers need. Most companies are like that, and it's OK.
Personally, I value honesty. I despise of companies that try to pretend they're doing something grand, or working towards some idea, when in fact they're just in it for the cash. Not trying to fix the world is totally fine. Pretending to do it for a marketing boost is not.
> but otherwise obviously makes no sense, it's antithetic to the very idea of a business.
How does it NOT make sense? The purpose of a business like this is not to generate some short term profit. These are winner-take-all markets - they're playing for complete and utter domination of an entire product category.
Their Q1 revenue grew 37% YoY - how on earth would you care about profit over what they doing here? They should keep hitting that as hard as they can.
> I just don't think many or most tech companies have anything positive to offer the world. All these companies simply exist to make money.
IMHO, making money IS providing something positive to the world. A lot of people are employed, and those people get to buy art or cookies or college for their kids or whatever.
A lot of customers are served, and presumably got something they wanted.
“Everything in the tech industry is driven with a very hardcore eye for profit and very little interest in anything else”
What is up with the discourse lately - of course it’s all about the profits - we’re talking about companies right not non-profits? How else are they going to pay you?
The whole “expecting companies to care about so many things” apart from profit seeking mindset is just bizarre to me
>... so maybe I'm the one approaching this the wrong way?
I wouldn't say that. Everyone views things differently. You may place more value on product/industry/global impact, whereas others don't care, they just want the cash.
>> Any guesses what they wanted to achieve with this piece of marketing?
Sure. They're hoping to sell the company. To whom I'm not sure. It wasn't an appeal to any specific customers, but a lot about how great the company is and what a great position they're in. So that must be what they're selling - the company.
Not disagreeing with you, but why is it a surprise to anyone? Any company that seems to be “nice” is only doing that as a good PR increases their profits, which depending on domain may be very important.
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