sergey-brin

Who Is Sergey Brin?

Sergey Brin is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, co-founder of Google, and main shareholder of the company.

Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved with his family to the United States when he was six years old.

He showed an aptitude for mathematics and computer science, and his parents encouraged his intellectual curiosity by enrolling him in advanced math classes.

Brin met fellow Google co-founder Larry Page at Stanford University after he received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

PageRank

One of Brin’s most significant contributions to Google was the development of PageRank, the algorithm that ranks search results based on the number and quality of links to a page.

PageRank revolutionized the way search engines worked and positioned Google as the most accurate and reliable search engine on the internet.

At Stanford, Brinโ€™s dorm room became a defacto office and programming center where various search engine designs were tested on the web. Launched in 1996, the search engine was so popular that it caused issues with Stanfordโ€™s network infrastructure.

Later, Brin co-authored a paper with Larry Page titled The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.

Somewhat contradictory, the paper advocated that search engine results should not be biased toward companies that paid top dollar for higher placement.

Google

After Google was registered as a company, Brin became the president of technology. In response to pressure from investors, the pair employed Eric Schmidt as CEO with Brin famously referring to the appointment on TV as akin to โ€œparental supervision.โ€

Brin continued in this role until 2011 when he became the director of special projects at the Google moonshot factory. He also worked on the now defunct social network Google Plus, later admitting that his introverted nature meant that โ€œIt was probably a mistake for me to be working on anything tangentially related to social to begin with.โ€

In June 2012, he debuted a Google Glass prototype with a live skydiving demonstration. While the product was arguably rushed to market too soon, Brin was the mastermind behind some of Google Xโ€™s most successful products. The promotional video also told the world that Google stood for more than just dull web products.

Google restructure

Googleโ€™s restructuring in 2015 was seen as a better way for the company to manage its various interests, but it also marked the point at which Brin removed himself from day-to-day operations. When he and Page became CEO and president of Alphabet, the pair essentially found themselves working for a holding company.

However, incoming Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai would still report to the pair and both retained a substantial amount of their so-called โ€œsuper-votingโ€ Class B shares. In 2019, Brin stepped down from his role as president but continues to sit on Alphabetโ€™s board of directors.

Philosophy and philanthropy

The Economist once called Brin the โ€œEnlightenment Manโ€ for his dedication to solving world problems with reason and science. Many of the products he oversaw at Google X embody this philosophy, but Brin is also a philanthropist at heart.

In 2012, he founded the Brin Wojcicki Foundation with Anne Wojcicki โ€“ the sister of early Google employee Susan and Brinโ€™s eventual wife. The non-profit donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Parkinsonโ€™s research after Brin noted he was genetically predisposed to the disease. 

When Brin and Wojcicki divorced, Brin established the Sergey Brin Family Foundation which donates money to left-leaning organizations and California-based schools, libraries, and educational programs.

Key takeaways:

  • Sergey Brin is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Google. He met fellow Google co-founder Larry Page at Stanford University after he received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
  • After Google was registered as a company, Brin became the president of technology. Brin continued in this role until 2011 when he became the director of special projects at the Google moonshot factory.
  • Google’s restructuring in 2015 was seen as a better way for the company to manage its various interests, but it also marked the point at which Brin removed himself from day-to-day operations. He now devotes himself to various philanthropic endeavors.

Related To Google

Google Business Model

google-business-model
Google is an attention merchant that – in 2022 – generated over $224 billion (almost 80% of revenues) from ads (Google Search, YouTube Ads, and Network sites), followed by Google Play, Pixel phones, YouTube Premium (a $29 billion segment), and Google Cloud ($26.2 billion).

Who Owns Google

who-owns-google
Google is primarily owned by its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have more than 51% voting power. Other individual shareholders comprise John Doerr (1.5%), a venture capitalist and early investor in Google, and CEO, Sundar Pichai. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has 4.2% voting power. The most prominent institutional shareholders are mutual funds BlackRock and The Vanguard Group, with 2.7% and 3.1%, respectively.

Google Other Bets

google-other-bets
Of Google’s (Alphabet) over $282 billion revenue for 2022, Google also generated over a billion dollars from a group of startup bets, which Google considers potential moonshots (companies that might open up new industries). Those Google’s bets also generated a loss for the company of over $6 billion in the same year. In short, Google is using the money generated by search and betting it on other innovative industries. Of Google’s (Alphabet) over $282 billion revenue for 2022, Google also generated over a billion dollars from a group of startup bets, which Google considers potential moonshots (companies that might open up new industries). Those Google’s bets also generated a loss for the company of over $6 billion in the same year. In short, Google is using the money generated by search and betting it on other innovative industries. 

Google Cloud Business

google-cloud-business-model

How Big Is Google?

how-big-is-google
Google is an attention merchant that โ€“ in 2022 โ€“ generated $224 billion (almost 80% of its total revenues) from ads (Google Search, YouTube Ads, and Network sites), followed by Google Play, Pixel phones, YouTube Premium (a $29 billion segment), and Google Cloud ($26.3 billion).

Google Traffic Acquisition Costs

traffic-acquisition-cost
The traffic acquisition cost represents the expenses incurred by an internet company, like Google, to gain qualified traffic – on its pages – for monetization. Over the years, Google has been able to reduce its traffic acquisition costs and, in any case, to keep it stable. In 2022 Google spent 21.75% of its total advertising revenues (over $48 billion) to guarantee its traffic on several desktop and mobile devices across the web.

How Does Google Make Money

google-revenue-breakdown
Alphabet generated over $282B from Google search and others, $32.78 billion from the Network members (Adsense and AdMob), $29.2 billion from YouTube Ads, $26.28B from the Cloud, and $29 billion from other sources (Google Play, Hardware devices, and other services).

YouTube Business Model

how-does-youtube-make-money
YouTube was acquired for almost $1.7 billion in 2006 by Google. It makes money through advertising and subscription revenues. YouTube advertising network is part of Google Ads, and it reported more than $29B in revenues by 2022. YouTube also makes money with its paid memberships and premium content.

Google vs. Bing

google-vs-bing

Google Profits

google-income

Google Revenue Breakdown

google-revenue
In 2022, Google generated over $282 billion in revenues, of which over $162 billion from Google Search, over $29 billion from YouTube Ads, and almost $33 billion from Network Members’ properties. In addition, Google generated over $29 billion in other revenue, over $26 billion from Google Cloud, and over a billion dollars from other bets.

Google Advertising Revenue

how-much-money-does-google-make-from-search

Apple vs. Google

apple-vs-google

Google Employees Number

google-employees-number

Google Ad vs. Facebook Ad

google-ad-vs-facebook-ad

YouTube Ad Revenue

youtube-ad-revenue
YouTube, by 2022, generated over $29 billion in advertising revenues.

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