I wonder who's pet project this was and if there were any consequences inside the company for its failure.
It really did seem like a dumb idea from the beginning. I had a hard time seeing myself take the time to go to a pier to get on a floating flagship store. Even in SF where the port is integrated with the city I couldn't see myself doing it.
It wasn't even tough to get to. Grab the BART to the embarcadero, grab the MUNI down along it, hop off at the right pier and walk right on. Although we all were hanging out at the restaurant right in front before leaving.
I understand Joe Blow wouldn't be used to hoping on a yacht, but I don't think people who can blow $1,500 on an expensive accessory would lack that sort of experience. I hear Google has a commute boat as well they were trying out to go along with the busses.
I'm not familiar enough with the local real estate markets - but big flagship stores like Apples cost millions just for the buildout - it's conceivable that something like this might actually be less expensive (and certainly more interesting) than a traditional brick and mortar shop.
Google is definitely in better shape than you are. Quarterly earnings last quarter were about $3.4B.
Put it this way: $4M is about the fully-loaded cost of a team of 8-10 engineers over a year. Projects involving 8-10 man-years of engineer time get canceled all the time.
Your assuming it was a total loss of which seems unlikely.
They receive something when they sold the barge. More imortantly when doing A/B testing it's a bad idea to think of building the worse option as wasted time. It was a hedge that never got used.
Comments
I wonder who's pet project this was and if there were any consequences inside the company for its failure.
It really did seem like a dumb idea from the beginning. I had a hard time seeing myself take the time to go to a pier to get on a floating flagship store. Even in SF where the port is integrated with the city I couldn't see myself doing it.
It's pretty common to take boat tours and outings in SF, honestly. There's even a yearly cruise for game devs: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-pirates-of-silicon-valley-c...
It wasn't even tough to get to. Grab the BART to the embarcadero, grab the MUNI down along it, hop off at the right pier and walk right on. Although we all were hanging out at the restaurant right in front before leaving.
I understand Joe Blow wouldn't be used to hoping on a yacht, but I don't think people who can blow $1,500 on an expensive accessory would lack that sort of experience. I hear Google has a commute boat as well they were trying out to go along with the busses.
I'm not familiar enough with the local real estate markets - but big flagship stores like Apples cost millions just for the buildout - it's conceivable that something like this might actually be less expensive (and certainly more interesting) than a traditional brick and mortar shop.
It's $4 million dollars.
http://bgr.com/2014/08/01/google-mystery-barge-cancelled/
That's a rounding error.
Definitely not a rounding error. That's a substantial chunk of money and if you waste that it gets noticed. Revenues are not profits.
If it's a rounding error for you then you're in better shape then I am.
Google is definitely in better shape than you are. Quarterly earnings last quarter were about $3.4B.
Put it this way: $4M is about the fully-loaded cost of a team of 8-10 engineers over a year. Projects involving 8-10 man-years of engineer time get canceled all the time.
Your assuming it was a total loss of which seems unlikely.
They receive something when they sold the barge. More imortantly when doing A/B testing it's a bad idea to think of building the worse option as wasted time. It was a hedge that never got used.