Why Google embraced TV?

One of the big announcements at the recent Google Developer Conference is Google TV. For an internet company, it might seem puzzling why Google would embrace TV?

We might have heard statements that internet is the future and share of print and TV is growing smaller than ever.

But here’s what Google admitted/highlighted at the conference:

• 5 Hours per Day – that’s much much time an American spends watching TV every day. People are watching more TV now than they have in the past (so it’s actually growing).
• $70PHP 4,108INR 5,932EUR 67CNY 509 Billion – that’s how much advertising is spent on TV every year in the US alone. For internet, it’s just around 1% of that.
• Wider and Broader Reach – no other medium has the same amount of reach as TV.
• 4 Billion – that’s the estimated number of TV users worldwide. The mobile market has around 2 billion and the PC market has around 1 billion.

No wonder, Google’s tapping into the TV market. At the bottom line, Google wants to get a share of that $70PHP 4,108INR 5,932EUR 67CNY 509 billion ad spend — and that’s just in the US alone.

On another note, someone asked “what about Ilumina?” — that pinoy invention of an intelligent TV. Well, I’m not really sure. They could either get swallowed with all that buzz or might get acquired, depending on how strong their IP. Bumped into one of them several weeks back and they introduced me to their investor. They’re in silent-mode right now while in the final stages.