Google doesn’t necessarily need innovation | Medium

"Most big companies don’t innovate at a large scale. It’s normal. You have two perfectly valid alternatives for responding to market shifts: You can acquire the innovator (or one of their competitors), or you can build your own competing product and compete head-to-head.

Acquisitions happen all the time. Sometimes the safest thing to do is wait for an innovator to become hugely successful, and then use your deep pockets to buy them up. Google buying YouTube, Facebook buying Instagram, and Amazon buying Twitch are all good examples. Nothing wrong with this approach.

Uber didn’t invent food delivery, but they were able to recognize its potential very early...

"Most big companies don’t innovate at a large scale. It’s normal. You have two perfectly valid alternatives for responding to market shifts: You can acquire the innovator (or one of their competitors), or you can build your own competing product and compete head-to-head.

Acquisitions happen all the time. Sometimes the safest thing to do is wait for an innovator to become hugely successful, and then use your deep pockets to buy them up. Google buying YouTube, Facebook buying Instagram, and Amazon buying Twitch are all good examples. Nothing wrong with this approach.

Uber didn’t invent food delivery, but they were able to recognize its potential very early...