Real reason why Pokemon Go got a mention from CEOs of Apple, Google and Facebook this week

Just when we thought the success of Pokemon Go can’t go any bigger, it just did. This week we saw the now famous Pokemons sneak into the earning calls of the biggest tech companies of the world, Apple, Facebook and Google. And here’s why Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai are extremely excited about the game and it has nothing to do with playing the game.

Tim Cook

Apple CEO, Tim Cook had big things to say about Augmented Reality and how they are looking at it for the long run. But Cook’s mention of the game seemed almost forced as if somebody told him that this is big and must be mentioned to promote the already popular iPhones. And he did. But went funnily wrong with the pronunciation of the game. This is exactly what he said “So we're investing, and the number one thing is that our products work well with other developers' products, like Pokeman, and that's why you see so many iPhones in the wild out there chasing Pokemans.” While Cook might not know much about “Pokeman” the game but knows very well that Apple is making big bucks from the game. Apple pockets 30% cut from any in-app purchase and looking at the success of the game it is making Apple more revenue than any other game out there.

Sundar Pichai

Google CEO Sundar Pichai knew exactly how relevant and big Pokemon Go is and a mention in his earning call was a must. So Pichai joked about how he knows that analysts on the call are playing the game during the call, which goes to show that he clearly has no clue about how the game is played. But he is completely aware of how big a business this game is for Google. Apart from owning part of Niantic Labs that created Pokemon Go, just like Apple, Google also gets a good 30% on any in-app purchases. With the kind of downloads Pokemon Go has seen it has been one of the biggest money churners for Google.

Mark Zuckerberg

While Facebook might not be making money from Pokemon Go as of now (you never know with Facebook), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was probably the only one out of the three CEOs who actually tried the game and enjoyed it “like everyone else”. Popularity of Augmented Reality is popularity of Artificial Intelligence as a whole and Facebook has made huge investments in Virtual Reality especially with the kind of money it has put in on VR headset, Oculus Rift. And all this popularity is only going help Facebook in all it’s long-term strategic bets.

So you see, it’s about business much more than the game. And don’t be surprised if you see difficult to catch over excited Pokemons out there. Enjoy the glory Pokemon Go, you’ve earned it!