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,
Tim Cook
Apple CEO, Tim Cook had big things to say about
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!