Most companies target early adopters with their new products, hoping those users will tell all of their friends all about it. But not GrandCentral, the company Google acquired for $50 million in July 2007. They’ve gone after the homeless demographic. Twice.
Two years ago they offered to give homeless people free access to their (already free) service. It worked so well (4,000 signups) that yesterday they announced it all over again.
This time Mayor Newsom threw in a bunch of sound bites about how this will “empower” the homeless, improve their morale, etc. (last time they were only able to get Newsom’s deputy chief of staff to comment).
To be clear, I think it’s great that Google is trying to help out the homeless. But what I really applaud is the marketing audacity it takes to announce that you are making an already free service free for the homeless. And then do it again two years later. And to do it even though homeless people already have access to free voicemail through at least one nonprofit organization.
I wonder if Google can pull off the same stunt in the future for new products. Free cloud storage for the homeless, anyone?
Update: Good comment by Scott Rafer below with a different viewpoint:
Please check with local experts when they are available. It’s all about SF politics, and the gimmick is Mayor Newsom’s not Google’s. I’m generally a supporter of this mayor, but his terrible Care-not-Cash program ripped prepaid mobile phones out of the hands of many working homeless — the people who have the best shot to get themselves out of trouble. They are often doing day work for employers who know the phone numbers at the homeless shelters and will not call them or accept calls from them.
GrandCentral and similar services provide the Mayor with some air cover and are at least a mediocre replacement for prepaid phones in this use case.
Update 2: GrandCentral cofounder Craig Walker responds in the comments.
Are there a lot of payphones in SF?
What I don’t get is that GC has been doing this for a very long time – I guess Google just wanted more publicity for it?
When I wrote about it last april, they have already been doing it for a year:
http://www.cent...ng-the-homeless
I think the program is a great idea and should be done nationwide, not sure why it’s just in SF…
If I remember, the main point of the program was to help the homeless be able to give out a number when they apply for a job or aid.
Michael,
You’re just showing your ignorance, here. Not having a phone number is a huge barrier to employment.
Lots of organizations that work with homeless people try to offer this service, but it’s expensive. Google has done in one fell swoop what a patchwork of NPOs have been unable to do alone.
Google benefits from the PR and increased influence in the realm of NPOs, and homeless people have one less barrier in their way. It’s a win-win, and some of us ’round these parts call that capitalism.
@1:
No, there aren’t a lot of pay phones. But many homeless people *do* have access to a phone, just not a phone number they can give out to other people.
With this service they can give out their GC number and call in to listen to their voicemail whenever they’re around a phone.
Wow.
You sure sound like an asshole or an ignoramus here.
I guess you’ve never known or worked with anyone homeless before or you’d know what an important tool a phone number can be. Have you ever considered how difficult it might be to arrange anything, like a job interview, or an apartment viewing, without a phone? Probably not. Living the high life sure has cost you perspective.
Sure, there’s an upside in publicity for Google in doing this, but I what’s so absurd about it? It’s fullfilling a demstratable need in the homeless community. And if they’re able to facilitate the signup process this is really a great thing.
** Oh, I see you edited the post. Nice. For those who missed it, it used to close with: “Brilliant. Absurd, but brilliant.”
San Francisco’s homeless situation is bit offsetting! Why are there so many homeless people there? On Haight and Ashbury & Golden Gate Park it seems to be a life style, which boggles the mind.
This year in walking the streets (as a tourist) of San Fran and NYC, I viewed more homeless in San Fran then NYC. Crazy
Interesting to see if have an ad supported model for the homeless people. I mean isn’t it weird to have them advertise products to homeless that they likely can’t even buy?
Or I guess they could advertise self help programs, training and learning programs, etc.
uh, yeah, I’m sure homeless people appreciate the free voicemail. What is ridiculous about this is that Google is making it seem like they’re doing something special to help the homeless. When all they’re doing is giving an already free product is being given away free to the homeless. Why not make an announcement that every homeless person can get free email? or watch videos for free? A free wiki? Point is, the product is already free. It’s a publicity stunt, and just because you are pro-homeless, or whatever, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be smart enough to see that.
The homeless can get a cell phone if they want one, but help from anyone for anything is a good thing because they need all the help they can get. There are prepaid phones already. The ones that actually want jobs will do anything to get a job, including spend part of their welfare check on a prepaid phone. I wonder though, how is this phone going to be recharged??
Brian B
I am hereby announcing that I am providing TechCrunch free to all homeless people in San Francisco for life.
Where’s my MSNBC coverage?
Michael I am disgusted at you. Google is trying to save the world and all you can do is be sarcastic.
You totally miss the point Mike. From the MSNBC article:
“Google is partnering with San Francisco to provide the service to homeless individuals and to shelters and agencies so they can distribute the numbers to their clients.”
That’s the announcement here. You think that’s just going to happen magically? It’s a non-trival problem of how you distribute these numbers to people without computers or computer literacy.
: I am hereby announcing that I am providing TechCrunch free to all homeless
: people in San Francisco for life.
:
: Where’s my MSNBC coverage?
Hey, if you partnered with the city to provide computer education classes to every homeless person in the city so they could read TechCrunch (the equivalent to what Google’s doing here) then you’d get the coverage.
Michael,
I don’t deny it has value to Google, from several angles. But you’re just not thinking clearly.
Imagine yourself homeless and without a phone. You manage a shower and go in for an interview. They want a phone number to call you back in for a second interview, or to let you know if you got the job.
Maybe you’re mentally handicapped and manage to get transitional employment. You can now afford a low-rent apartment in the Tenderloin. The landlord or apartment agency requires a phone number for contact purposes. Rut roh.
I remember when I first moved to Chicago, years back. I didn’t have a cell phone. Do you know how (*&ing hard it is to set up an apartment without a phone number? The phone company actually requires a phone number to install phone service! I had friends with phones, so I managed, but if I had no help, no money, and no connections I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done.
Think, Michael. Or talk to someone who has actually worked with the homeless and ask them whether they think this is helpful. Hint: it is.
Wow, Michael. Do you really think there is no substance behind this announcement? This post highlights your ignorance and insults the many individuals (Google employees and others) who have worked hard to make GrandCentral’s free service actually accessible to the homeless of SF.
Jesse – yep, it’s super awesome. But what would make it an even better marketing gimmick is if they made the homeless people wear Google tshirts all the time. Wait, that’s free clothing for the homeless!
I agree with Michael. It *is* a great service to provide to the homeless, but it is a service that is provided to *everyone* — I have a GC number AND a home. I guess the real benefit of the campaign to the homeless here is that they might not know about GrandCentral without it.
That said, my Mom doesn’t know about GrandCentral, and she and my dad live in a nice home. Google’s next campaign: “Free Phone Number and Voice Mail for All Mothers of Adult Children.”
“a new low” – my point is…wait for it…that exploiting the homeless for a marketing gimmick is rather pathetic. If Google wanted to do something, they should donate a boatload of cash to Community Voice Mail.
http://www.cvm.org/
Michael,
Wait, you’re now lambasting Google for being self-interested? Of course Google had something to gain. OMG corporations!
Besides, it’s not like they’re saying, “Hey, homeless, you now have GC invite codes. Come and sign up!” They’re working with the city of SF to roll this out.
Jesse – You say “They’re working with the city of SF to roll this out.” But what you mean is, the city of San Francisco is helping google get new users for their Grand Central service, don’t you?
Michael, I totally agree! I was reading Techcrunch with all my homeless buds in a nice alley today, and they were all like “shit, I’ve been on GrandCentral for a year!” and “Stick it to ‘em, Arrington!”
You’ve got a HUGE following among the homeless, Michael!
Michael,
Yes, users who would particularly benefit from the service. So?
And now I see you’ve substantially changed the text of the article. Oops. I guess your original, more flippant post, just wouldn’t do.
I don’t really feel like commenting on a moving target, though.
Cheers!
wow… talk about a riot in here…
I could be wrong, but what I think Michael Arrington, of Tech Crunch (who recently announced his pledge to provide TechCrunch free to the homeless of San Fansisco), is trying to call Google out on is the flurry around their “charity”.
God’s honest charity should be done in the vein of “don’t let your left hand see what your right hand is doing”. And Google is taking an uncharacteristic “Look at me!” stance with this. (Clearly this is Google and their board being responsible to their stockholders by trying to drum up as much Pro-Google sentiment as they can in these hard times.)
Michael,
Please check with local experts when they are available. It’s all about SF politics, and the gimmick is Mayor Newsom’s not Google’s. I’m generally a supporter of this mayor, but his terrible Care-not-Cash program ripped prepaid mobile phones out of the hands of many working homeless — the people who have the best shot to get themselves out of trouble. They are often doing day work for employers who know the phone numbers at the homeless shelters and will not call them or accept calls from them.
GrandCentral and similar services provide the Mayor with some air cover and are at least a mediocre replacement for prepaid phones in this use case.
Wow, do you all really think these 4,000 new users are the users Google is dying to get. I’m sure their licking their chops at the billions they’re going to make by all of these homeless individuals signing up for the eventual “premium” features where Google will actually make their money. To argue that this is just to gain users is ignorant.
Furthermore, just because Google gets good PR doesn’t mean wasn’t done for the right reasons. Stating that GC has been offering this for a year is silly because a private beta is not exactly the sort of thing a homeless individual would know about. This is a great effort and should roll out nation wide. If Google gets free publicity, fine by me!
Jesse – yeah, i highlighted the fact that they did this same thing two years ago. I know a changing post can make commenting difficult, I apologize for that.
Look, all I’m trying to say is, just because you see “HOMELESS,” doesn’t mean their motives are pure. I call bullshit on this. It’s easy to say I’m anti-homeless based on that and score comment points. But there’s an issue here that is worth discussing.
For the record, here was the original version of the article:
GrandCentral Launches, But Only If You’re Homeless
2/28/08 8:55 PM Michael Arrington
Most companies target early adopters with their new products, hoping those users will tell all of their friends all about it. But not GrandCentral, the company Google acquired for $50 million in July 2007. They just pulled off a huge marketing stunt, and it appears to be working.
GrandCentral hasn’t actually launched – it’s in private beta and you have to get someone to invite you (get one here through our InviteShare service). On Wednesday, though, the company announced that any homeless person in San Francisco will soon be able to sign up and get a free local phone number and voicemail. Mayor Newsom then threw in a bunch of sound bites about how this will “empower” the homeless, improve their morale, etc.
What they are offering the homeless is simply the GrandCentral product – they already give you a phone number and voicemail, and it’s already free. The only difference is that they are guaranteeing it will be free for life to the homeless. And knowing Google, there’s a good chance it will be free for life for everyone else, too.
I wonder if Google can pull off the same stunt in the future for new products. Free cloud storage for the homeless, anyone?
Brilliant. Absurd, but brilliant.
Scott – great comment. I’m going to pull that up to the post in an update.
actually, ben, that was the second version. I rewrote it twice as I thought about it more.
What a pointless move, not just the sleaze in trumpetting an already free product to homeless people for free, but the idea voice mail helps people? Does it? Can they live in their voice mail? I imagine it is one of the last things a homeless person worries about, sort of a nice idea – but using it as some PR stunt is plain sleazy, how many homeless people will be helped really?
Michael,
Care to post the first, or is it too far down the memory hole?
michael – how much time or money did you donate to charity last year?
Jesse – no, it’s gone. but it was extremely harsh too.
Is it good to be charitable to the homeless, especially for a global powerhouse like Google to be charitable to the homeless in their own backyard? Yes. Does it somewhat make my stomach turn to see the upper-class exploit the homeless in a public campaign to gain political and commercial favor? Yes.
@#32 … see #24
@Michael. thank you.
A geek – you mean stuff over and above providing TechCrunch free to the homeless?
Michael:
When Vincent and I founded GrandCentral in early 2006, we realized early on that the service could also help the homeless in real meaningful way and we’ve been big fans of Project Homeless Connect since the first one we attended in April 2006.
The point of the announcement yesterday was not to restate the goals of Project CARE but to announce that we are taking Project CARE beyond showing up to these bi-monthly events and are now developing a self-service portal for agencies to be able to create these accounts directly for the homeless people they serve on a daily basis. It was also to announce that we are working directly with the Mayor’s Homeless Policy Director, Dariush Kayhan, to help us develop that portal to fully fill the needs of these agencies. The announcement also was to highlight how now that Google is behind Project CARE that we will have the resources to extend this service to homeless individuals nationwide.
I love reading your blog, enjoyed the Crunchies, and loved the TechCrunch 40 party, but think you might have missed the point on this one though.
Craig
Craig – that sounds great, but that’s not what the source article at MSNBC says, including your quotes in that article, which talk about how great it is to get a phone number if you’re homeless (not how you are expanding an existing program). Perhaps they took the story and ran with it without doing any research (to find out its been around forever), but this pretty much looked like a second announcement party. So I very well may have missed the point, but I’m not sure anyone else got it, either.
May you read again your comment and think few seconds.
“(…) even better marketing gimmick is if they made the homeless people wear Google tshirts all the time. Wait, that’s free clothing for the homeless!”
Google, or Grand Central, contributes to some of the greatest innovations that make like simpler and make high technologies affordable. As homeless people spend as much time as M. Arrington spends to get the news and to know how to adopt those innovations, Google has to partner with NGOs in order to distribute their “already-free-products” to – usually unattainable – segments.
Let’s develop a technology to make T-shirts at zero cost and offer it free to homeless. Then, your comment would meaningful, you’d be admired and get a press coverage.
You sould make a post about Google Earth Outreach and explain us how Google monetizes environmental catastrophes or, even better, exploit the Darfur tragedy to boost its sales. I trust you to forget to say that promoting Google Earth Outreach gives a voice to charities and that many NGOs woudn’t have been convinced to adopt G. Earth without this promotion.
I need – and like – bloggers for bringing me information and analyses. But what a pity to see that you can make pretence of stupidity to expose an “original” point of view. Don’t hunt evil down blindly, especially if there’s only commercial interest balanced with good will.
I agree with Michael, not sure why people missing the point here, they announced that they are going to let homeless people breath air for free.
Now, if google paid the homeless to have a phone now that would be something.
The strategy for Google is quite clear. Paid services has never been welcome but free and good services, even backed with advertising, is a good way to increase sign ups. And lastly, Google has a culture of “free”, so, they will always do this…
This might be a great move by Google, with the increasing foreclosures, they’ll be reaching an increasing target audience
Mike,
This is one of the best comment conversations ever – Hilarious. I’m all for doing good things for the community and Google’s done their fair share. It’s funny that you’d get razed for calling out their marketing gimmick.
Google, you have a cool product and you give it away for free (to everyone, not JUST the homeless). Let’s leave it at that.
I don’t see any problem if Google gives out free branded t-shirts to the homeless. Why not? Serves the needy and serves Google.
And am sure several people have PAID to wear a branded t-shirt – at least the homeless are doing it out of necessity unlike us suckers
Michael, I can kind of see where you were coming from — I too remember hearing about this way back when.
Something of note however — I remember doing some research on GrandCentral a few months back and found that they were giving away free phone numbers/voicemails to homeless individuals in SF *before* GrandCentral ever launched as the product we now know it to be. Just to point out that Craig and the guys at GC really are altruistic about the endeavor.
Fair enough Ravi… good point.
man i’m “bummed” – i met this awesome chick at the bar, and she gave me her number…but she never answers my calls! i always have to leave a voicemail…what’s the deal??
i guess i should have known when she kept having me buy her beers in a paper bag…
@39 Craig
OK. I’ve got to call bullshit here.
Michael A,
I can’t believe it, but I agree with you 100% on this observation:)
If GOOG really wants to help the homeless get jobs they would offer free websites and GOOG ads. Yes, this means Mr. Rogers who is homeless would have a adsense ad appear above Monster.com.
On another note I’d like to personally congratulate Craig and Vincent for pulling the wool over GOOG and getting $50M for GC. What a joke! What on gods green earth have you guys done to add shareholder value (REVENUE!). GOOG bought a company that truly had a cute UI, but zero horsepower under the hood.