Discussion

• X, the moonshot factory Astro Teller on x

  Loon's final flight

• @bengoertzel Ben Goertzel on x

  One more Big Tech “shocker”: Google realizes providing Internet to the poorest billion isn't gonna provide quick massive profit after all, shuts down Project Loon ... https://techcrunch.com/... ... maybe we need @NexusOfficial after all...

• @ajitpai Ajit Pai on x

  Project Loon to end operations: “While we've found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven't found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business. ... Today, I'm sad to share that Loon will be winding down.” https://medium.com/...

• @karlbode Karl Bode on x

  oh look, another Google broadband disruption play that didn't meet up to 2010 era hype https://twitter.com/...

• @emilygorcenski @emilygorcenski on x

  Well there goes another trial balloon https://twitter.com/...

• @polotek Marco Rogers on x

  Who could've possibly foreseen this? https://twitter.com/...

• @daiwaka Daisuke Wakabayashi on x

  Alphabet is grounding Loon. After a decade of pursuing high-altitude hot air balloons as floating cell towers, it said it doesn't see a way to get costs down to make Loon a viable business. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @bigmeaninternet Malcolm Harris on x

  Well it was definitely worth a try https://twitter.com/...

• @derektmead @derektmead on x

  Not surprised but nonetheless RIP to a project that held on from a bygone era when tech felt more invested in wacky and fun ideas https://techcrunch.com/...

• @mucheru CS Joe Mucheru EGH on x

  The learnings gained from partnering with Loon will catapult our vision of ubiquitous access to all.. https://medium.com/...

• @bznotes Bilal Zuberi on x

  There was so much technology invented to make this happen...though questionable if it commercially ever made sense, even in a back of the envelope way. Will make for a good business school case study. Like the one written once upon a time on The Rise and Fall of Iridium (2000). h…

• @grinich Michael Grinich on x

  The day SpaceX reused that first rocket was the real ending for Project Loon. 😥 A 10x reduction in cost-to-orbit meant it was inevitable satellite internet would win. Still, it's a shame. Loon was such a cool idea and executed well. Alas it was the LaserDisc of global internet. h…

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  With Google's balloons shut down, following Facebook's drones, and Starlink in the news... there is something interesting in the psychology of people from the tech industry wanting to take on cellular by building their own proprietary non-standard unscalable technology

• @sub8u Subrahmanyam Kvj on x

  Tech is fascinating. Economics is excruciating. Shouldn't take years to understand that a sustainable business needs both to work in tandem! Google's Internet thro' balloons venture, Project Loon, is shutting down. https://medium.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @pt Parker on x

  I'm sympathetic to the view Google should just return capital to shareholders, but TBH they do really neat things I'm skeptical VCs would fund with their patience. I won't be surprised if eventually they hit a winner that pays for them all. Do we not remember Android? https://twi…

• @jason @jason on x

  RIP Loon — was a cool idea, but... well... Starlink. https://twitter.com/...

• @bgurley Bill Gurley on x

  Would love to see an HBR case on this one day. @trengriffin https://twitter.com/...

• @airlineflyer Jason Rabinowitz on x

  I'll miss seeing the Loon balloons in random places on @flightradar24 but never understood how this could work successfully. Turns out it can't. https://twitter.com/...

• @edbott Ed Bott on x

  Google's graveyard gets another tombstone. https://twitter.com/...

• @bradstone Brad Stone on x

  In blog post, Google declares all my old earnest Project Loon coverage now looks totally ridiculous in retrospect. https://medium.com/... a greatest hit from @BW, now slightly embarrassing: https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @lutherlowe Luther Lowe on x

  Surprise, surprise: Project Loon was vaporware! https://www.techmeme.com/... Each time Inc/Fast Company/Wired/etc obediently engaged in this Google brand puffery, they missed an opportunity to scrutinize how Google search was strangling the web or how YouTube was radicalizing peo…

• @theteamatx @theteamatx on x

  We're sad to share that Loon's journey is coming to an end. Despite the team's groundbreaking technical achievements the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped — so we've made the difficult decision to close down Loon. https://blog.x.company/..…

• @jason_pontin Jason Pontin on x

  Which of its big things has X actually gotten across the line? Glass, Toronto, Loon, even Google Cars—all failures. I'm sorry for Astro, whom I like. There's some flawed about the whole approach. Too much money; not enough market pull; too little discipline. Something. https://tw…

• @lauramandaro Laura Mandaro on x

  @NickBastone and @amir saw this coming in November, when they reported Loon had spent all the $$ it raised from an external investor and was on the hunt for more https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...

• @ianjohnbuckley Ian Buckley on x

  Very sad to see this. I worked on the @Loon4all radio back around 2014 and though I declined an offer to join GoogleX, I always hoped this would succeed as it seemed such an elegant solution working passively with minimal energy use. https://www.wired.com/...

• @killedbygoogle @killedbygoogle on x

  So loong! https://twitter.com/...

• @rdrv3 David ‘cyberdunk’ Ruddock on x

  does this surprise like, anyone https://twitter.com/...

• @t1merickson Tim Erickson on x

  The market for Loon changed since its founding in 2013 “In the last decade, much of the underserved world became connected—internet availability rose from 75% to 93%. The remaining areas are primarily populated by those who can't afford the 4G phones that receive Loon signals.” h…

• @martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x

  Loon's been popped. https://twitter.com/...