homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Google donates $800 million in ad credits and cash to fight coronavirus

It's the biggest donation made by thus far by a tech giant.

Tibi Puiu
March 27, 2020 @ 10:42 pm

share Share

Credit: Google.

From Alibaba to Amazon, the biggest names in tech and business are pitching in to fight COVID-19. On Friday, Google joined their ranks after the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced an $800 million funding scheme in cash and advertising credits meant to help small businesses and raise awareness among the public.

This is the largest donation yet announced by a tech corporation. However, it should be noted that must of the funding is in the form of credits that grantees can spend on advertising on Google’s platforms (AdWords, Adsense, YouTube).

For Google’s parent company Alphabet, digital ads make up more than 80% of Alphabet’s revenue, which amounted to $170 billion for the fiscal year of 2019 alone.

In the midst of the pandemic and unprecedented economic turmoil, advertising budgets are the first to get scrapped. As such, both Google and Facebook are expecting massive drops in their income this year. According to Cowen & Co. analysts, Facebook and Google stand to lose 44 billion in worldwide ad revenue this year.

Faced with low ad demand, Google likely sees this as an opportunity to help small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic, as well as NGOs on a mission to raise awareness on COVID-19 — while helping revenue flow through Google’s ad system in the long-term.

According to Pichai, $250 million in ad grants will go to the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as more than 100 government agencies around the world, in order to help spread information about the coronavirus. Another $20 million in ad credits will be awarded to community organizations that provide information about relief funds.

Around $340 million in ad credits will be awarded to small and midsize businesses with active Google advertising accounts over the past year.

Another $20 million in Google credits, this time for its cloud services, will be awarded to academic institutions and researchers working on COVID-19 related projects.

A $200 million investment fund has been set up to offer hard cash to small businesses that need access to capital in order to survive the year. An additional $15 million in cash grants were previously announced by Google.org, the philanthropic subsidiary of Alphabet.

Finally, Google will also offer know-how, as well as money, to suppliers of essential medical equipment and medical devices. For instance, Google has already partnered with Magid Glove & Safety to produce 3 million face masks in the coming weeks, which will be donated to the CDC Foundation.

Also this week, Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple has announced this week that the company is donating 10 million masks to the medical community in the United States, and millions more for the European regions hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

share Share

This 5,500-year-old Kish tablet is the oldest written document

Beer, goats, and grains: here's what the oldest document reveals.

A Huge, Lazy Black Hole Is Redefining the Early Universe

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a massive, dormant black hole from just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Did Columbus Bring Syphilis to Europe? Ancient DNA Suggests So

A new study pinpoints the origin of the STD to South America.

The Magnetic North Pole Has Shifted Again. Here’s Why It Matters

The magnetic North pole is now closer to Siberia than it is to Canada, and scientists aren't sure why.

For better or worse, machine learning is shaping biology research

Machine learning tools can increase the pace of biology research and open the door to new research questions, but the benefits don’t come without risks.

This Babylonian Student's 4,000-Year-Old Math Blunder Is Still Relatable Today

More than memorializing a math mistake, stone tablets show just how advanced the Babylonians were in their time.

Sixty Years Ago, We Nearly Wiped Out Bed Bugs. Then, They Started Changing

Driven to the brink of extinction, bed bugs adapted—and now pesticides are almost useless against them.

LG’s $60,000 Transparent TV Is So Luxe It’s Practically Invisible

This TV screen vanishes at the push of a button.

Couple Finds Giant Teeth in Backyard Belonging to 13,000-year-old Mastodon

A New York couple stumble upon an ancient mastodon fossil beneath their lawn.

Worms and Dogs Thrive in Chernobyl’s Radioactive Zone — and Scientists are Intrigued

In the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, worms show no genetic damage despite living in highly radioactive soil, and free-ranging dogs persist despite contamination.