2021 has been an interesting year thus far. After the plethora of missed plans and stay-at-home orders courtesy the global coronavirus pandemic, and the volatility surrounding the presidential elections, the world is beginning to embrace its new normal. Google, too, is following suit – the technology super-giant is witnessing shifts in the company as some aspects of its operations are coming to an end while others are only beginning. Just as Google Payments chief Caesar Sengupta is bidding farewell from the company, Google itself is carrying on a large-scale expansion throughout the United States, which will inject more money into the economy, and of course, create thousands of new job opportunities.
Below, we shall dive into these changes in detail, and find out what they mean for the future of the company, and for the people themselves:
Caesar Sengupta exits Google Payments
In a news that has come as a shock to many – both within Google and beyond, Google Payments chief Caesar Sengupta has announced that he will be stepping down from his position on the 30th of April 2021 – after over 15 years of service to the company. The Singapore-based Sengupta explained in a LinkedIn post on how it was time for him to see if he could “ride without the training wheels” after having spent his time in Google’s highly innovative-yet-protective environment.
Throughout his tenure at Google, Sengupta has been a highly influential force and has brought forth key changes into the company. As part of his position as the vice-president and general manager of Google Payments, he has helped re-brand and launch the Google Pay app in the US, along with launching the app from scratch in several others, including Singapore and India. Google Pay is now one of the most popular platforms worldwide – boasting over 150 million users across 30 countries. He has also been known to be the key force behind several related initiatives which include (but is not limited to) the “Next Billion Users” and ChromeOS.
As of now, Sengupta is currently undecided on the kind of role he will be taking over going forward. Google too has not made any announcements thus far as to who will be taking over the reigns once Sengupta effectively steps down.
Google is Unveiling Its Big Expansion Plans
Google may be witnessing the end of an era with the resignation of Caesar Sengupta, but that is not stopping the tech giant from making further advancements to expand. As the workplace has been embracing a hybrid model of working (i.e., one which includes elements of both remote and in-office systems), the company is making a massive investment driving growth across the US.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently revealed in a company blog post that Google will be investing over $7 billion in an array of data centers and offices all over the country. He further explained that the main idea behind this move is to empower local communities and small-to-medium businesses, which can collectively drive a bigger and evenly distributed growth and help the US better in its path to economic recovery.
The move has 2 key takeaways – the first (and more obvious) one being the creation of new jobs. By investing from the basic level and giving small and local businesses more to work with, the company will help create thousands of new jobs, which means more employment and economic benefit for all. The chief executive has mentioned this as part of its post – adding how the move to invest will create “at least 10,000” new jobs.
The other takeaway clearly shows that the future of work is neither completely remote nor in-office, but rather a unique blend of the two. Google investing in offices in the first place proves that remote work shall not in fact be a one-and-done deal.
North Carolina’s New Engineering Hub
One of the expansion initiatives that are active right now is the one in North Carolina. Following the trend of tech companies moving away from the Silicon Valley, Google too is opening its own brand-new engineering hub in the Old North State. The hub’s main function will be to assist companies with cloud-based service-related requirements, which include remote collaboration and database management, among others.
The hub, which will call the city of Durham its home, will be specializing exclusively in Google Cloud Products and plans to become the top engineering hub for cloud services. The hub is currently in active recruitment mode and plans to employ at least 150 permanent employees within 2021 – a number that is slated to increase to 300 in 2022 and 500 in 2023. Their milestone is to have at least 1,000 employees working in the hub by 2023.
Google Antitrust Battle Expands as More States Join the Lawsuit
One of the biggest blows to Google in the last year has been the antitrust lawsuit filed against the company. Led by the state of Texas (which had originally filed it), the lawsuit was filed on the basis of governments witnessing the tech giant violating numerous federal antitrust laws to give its online advertising profits a major boost. Over the course of time, other states, too have joined the lawsuit.
In the recent months, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, and Florida have joined lawsuit. Furthermore, the territory of Puerto Rico has also joined the fight again the Alphabet company. Together, this brings the total number of states and territories joining the fight to 15.
