But Google depends crucially and directly on the content created by users and more generally on the goodwill of the Internet community.
Equally, so do the many products Google creates and gives away, with no obvious path to future profit.
So, more than in the past, it makes sense for corporations to cultivate diffuse goodwill, rather than focusing solely on profit, perhaps modified by the need to buy off powerful interests.
I agree with your conclusions, but disagree with your analysis. Isn’t it more likely that the rules for making a profit have changed? It is not goodwill for the sake of goodness; it’s good – or at least the perception of goodness – that now helps yield profits.
Google creates products ‘with no obvious path to future profit’ because it understands that technology has changed the way business is done and the new methods require an embrace of creativity. But the motivations are still the same.
If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of ‘profits’ (as some people in this comment section appear to be) then nothing about the way the world is changing is encouraging. However, I think there is something else going on here. While the motivation is still profits, technology, which is so widely accessible, needs to provide something more than functionality. Functionality is easily replicated. What’s left is an aura. Something you use because you ‘believe’ in it, somehow.
That can be accomplished by branding. But also by what someone does with their money. So what a hotshot CEO does with their money is part of the ‘aura’ of goodness. This explains things like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google Foundation and all those little foundations scattered around the Bay Area, created by a new breed instant millionaires, who promise to be ‘good.’ And actually do end up doing good things.
That changes the argument of profits, doesn’t it? If people are doing something worthwhile with the money they make, then what’s the problem? You can easily reduce anyone’s actions into selfish motivations and you would have proved almost nothing. It’s external actions that matter most. It appears that we are moving in a direction that encourages both profits and goodwill.