Topline
After eight years, Google’s parent couldn’t see a way to turn a profit off its effort to bring the internet to remote places via high-altitude balloons.
Key Facts
Loon’s internet balloons, which are the size of a tennis court, navigate and fly autonomously to underserved areas and beam down internet access across thousands of square miles.
The problem with Loon wasn’t technology-related, but rather the division couldn’t find a way to make it profitable as more people in underserved areas got connected to the internet in other ways, Wired reported—with 93% of the world now having Internet access, the few remaining unconnected places are populated by many people who either can’t afford the 4G phones that Loon requires or aren’t interested in getting access.
Loon was started in 2013 inside Alphabet’s so-called “moonshot factory,” X, but the project “graduated” from X in 2018 and made into an independent division under Alphabet’s “Other Bets.”
Crucial Quote
“While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business,” Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post.
Key Background
Loon wasn’t a total failure. Loon notably helped bring internet connectivity to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s telecommunications infrastructure. Over the summer, Loon inked its first major deal with a Kenyan telecommunications company Telkom to bring 4G LTE to remote parts of Kenya. And its scientists figured out a way to transfer data via beams of light, which spurred the creation of Taara, another X moonshot.
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January 22, 2021 at 08:48AM
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Alphabet Is Shutting Down Loon, Its Project To Bring People Internet Via Balloons - Forbes
"bring" - Google News
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