Why does Google kills their product even if they are doing good

Question

I&rsquo;m Asking this out of curiosity. I remember few years ago I used to use this app called Inbox developed by Google. It was really cool Email App and even way better than Gmail Android App.But google ended up shutting down that app after running it for about 3/4 years

thfuran · Accepted Answer

Google is an infinite fountain of ad money that is attached to an enormous pile of developers who are structurally incentivized to make new things rather than maintaining existing things. This isn't really a recipe for the long term success of everything that they make, particularly things that don't move the needle on that ad revenue firehose.

NVHacker · Answer

The bar for "doing good" is much higher at Google. Think 1bn users.

MattGaiser · Answer

It being cool and better for you isn't really evidence that the app was doing well.

ksaj · Answer

I think you'd have to look at how much revenue is created by each app they make. It might be popular, but a lot of popular things don't make money. I'm not sure if inbox was ever popular. I did try it for a few days once, though.
Part of the problem with being a public company is that your sole incentive is forever increasing revenue and profits. That very often means lopping off things that don't look great on the sheets - especially if the cull makes the business as a whole more profitable.
Keep in mind that you are not the customer. You are their audience. Their advertisers and shareholders are who they are accountable to.
That's why you don't have to pay for the service, and also why it's nearly impossible for you to negotiate with them if they delete your account. If you were their customer, you'd have a say. But you're just part of a large interactive audience in their business model.