Google's Business Plan For Nest: Selling Your Data To Utility Companies

jfruh (300774) writes "Google spent $3.2 billion on Nest. How is it going to make its money back selling high-end electronic thermostats at $250 a pop? Well, keep in mind that Google is a company that makes its money off information, not hardware. In fact, Nest is developing a healthy revenue stream in which it sells aggregated user information to utility companies, to help them more efficiently plan their electricity-generation scheduling. The subscriptions net Google somewhere in the range of $40 per user per year."

Comments

But they already bill me

[scorp1us]

The power company already knows how much I use and when. In fact they send me this energy statement saying I'm using 10% more than my neighbors.

Re:But they already bill me

[Anonymous Coward]

But they don't specifically know how much energy goes into heating and AC, vs. other household uses.

Say it looks like there's going to be a heat wave next week, it's going to be 100+ for a couple weeks straight, how much extra energy are you going to use (and by extension everyone else like you). If you're using 10% more energy than your neighbors because you're growing pot your increased demand is going to be lower than if you use 10% more energy because you keep the house at 55 degrees to slow the decay of your roadkill collection.

You are the product

[MikeMo]

Remember, with Google, you - and what you do online - are their product. That information, and your "eyeballs" are what they sell. Expect them to behave accordingly.

OMG, ConEd will know when i use electricity

[alen]

this is horrible, imagine if they could build out for peak capacity in the right locations for the right times so there wouldn't be anymore rolling blackouts in july and august