After Taking Over as CEO of Google’s Parent Company, Pichai Faces Three Major Challenges in 2020

Google CEO Sundar Pichai was just named Alphabet CEO last week. In the upcoming 2020, he will face three major Challenges include regulatory risk, profit pressure and employee morale.

1. Increasing regulatory risks

Earlier this year, Alphabet officially acknowledged being subject to antitrust investigations by the government. And it’s not just U.S. federal law enforcement officials launching a more stringent investigation into Alphabet’s business practices. In addition to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), attorneys general in several U.S. states have launched antitrust actions against the company survey.

In Europe, Alphabet has faced record fines in recent years for violating antitrust regulations. Recently, the European Commission ’s antitrust regulator, the European Commission, has launched an investigation into Google ’s data collection activities, which may include data related to local search services, advertising, ad targeting, login services, and web browsers.

2. Pressure on profit growth

In the third quarter that just passed, Alphabet released a mixed performance report. Among them, revenue was better than expected, but profits were hit. In the third quarter, Alphabet’s earnings per share were $ 10.12, lower than the expected $ 12.42.

Some analysts said that one of the reasons for the failure was the accelerated growth of operating expenses and expenditures on research and development, sales and marketing. In the third quarter, Alphabet’s equity investment net loss was $ 1.53 billion, compared with a gain of $ 1.38 billion in the same period last year.

3. Suspicious employees

Of course, Alphabet is still one of Silicon Valley’s most popular employers. But now, outspoken employees don’t seem to agree with the company’s policies and direction. For example, Google employees set off a workers’ protest last year as a result of a contract between Google and the military to analyze drone footage.

This is not an isolated incident. In June, a group of workers appeared at a shareholder meeting to protest Google’s handling of sexual harassment complaints. In November, employees protested against the suspension of two colleagues, allegedly because of their internal “activism.”