As the demand for digital storage grows, more people are opting for paid subscriptions that offer more space and features. Google One, the company’s flagship subscription service, has reached a remarkable 100 million users, according to Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai. This service provides additional storage for popular free products like Gmail, Photos, and Drive, as well as other benefits.
This achievement reflects Google’s strategy of incentivizing users to switch from their free plans. For instance, Google recently discontinued the unlimited storage option for photos in Google Drive, which may have prompted some users to upgrade their plans. Another successful subscription product is YouTube Premium, which has also crossed the 100 million mark thanks to its attractive offerings such as ad-free viewing, music streaming, and original content. Moreover, YouTube has also implemented measures to discourage the use of ad blockers, which may have boosted its revenue.
We just crossed 100M Google One subscribers! Looking forward to building on that momentum with our new AI Premium Plan (launched yesterday) offering AI features like Gemini Advanced, plus Gemini in Gmail, Docs + more coming soon. https://t.co/m7zAVop7P6 pic.twitter.com/sMdwJeq0iU
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 9, 2024
Google revealed this milestone in its earnings report last month and reiterated it when it introduced the new AI Premium Plan a few days ago.
The new AI plan is similar to the existing Google One Premium plan, which costs $100 per year and gives 2TB of storage and extras like VPN and dark web monitoring. However, the new AI plan is twice as expensive and comes with a major upgrade: Gemini. This is a powerful AI assistant that can perform various tasks and functions across different Google services, such as Gmail and Docs.
Google claims that Gemini’s Ultra 1.0 LLM model is a breakthrough in AI technology. It is supposed to be highly efficient at processing information, comprehending complex instructions and programs, solving problems in creative ways, and generating high-quality code in different programming languages. Google has also launched the Gemini app for Android users, which allows them to access and interact with the AI assistant on their mobile devices.