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Google’s Impact in Canada 2023
Economic Impact
Report
2023
Introduction
For over twenty years, Google has helped Canadians find information, explore the world around them and connect with businesses using its products and services. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This mission is more relevant than it’s ever been, as 2023 saw the rapid adoption of AI technologies, providing one of the most profound new opportunities to unlock the power of information.
Since 2016, Google has been an AI-first company, and has infused the technology into a number of its products like Search, Maps, Gmail and YouTube. The technology presents significant opportunities to move the economy forward and tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges like climate change and emergency response. However, to ensure economic and societal growth, it’s vital that everyone is given the opportunity to harness the benefits of this technology.
In this report, we look at how Google’s innovations and products are helping Canadians, workers and businesses, and we explore the future potential of AI for Canada.
Google commissioned independent consultancy Public First to explore:
Google’s Commitments to Canada, across the country’s workforce and through community support
The AI opportunity in Canada, exploring AI’s economic and social impact and an understanding of Canadians’ views of the technology.
Google’s impact on Canadian businesses and the economy, enabling new business models and connecting businesses with customers across the world.
The growing potential of Google Cloud computing, helping Canadian businesses boost productivity, gain competitive advantages and work more securely.
Google’s support for Canadians, equipping Canadians with digital skills, helping them find jobs, and addressing pressing societal issues.
To do this we surveyed over 4,000 Canadians adults and spoke to over 1,000 senior business decision makers alongside new economic modeling quantifying the economic and social impact of Google for Canada’s individuals, families and businesses.
Key Findings
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In 2023, Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, Google Cloud and Google Advertising tools helped provide over $60 billion of economic activity for Canadian businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers.
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Based on time saved, we estimate that in a given year, Google services could be producing a $61 billion improvement in productivity for the Canadian economy.
hours
Generative AI has the potential to boost Canada’s economy by $230 billion and could save the average Canadian worker over 175 hours a year, freeing them up to concentrate on more fulfilling parts of their jobs.
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In total, we estimate that Google Search and Ads are supporting $7 billion in exports for the Canadian economy.
73% of businesses said online search was an important way that customers found them, with 56% agreeing that Google Search is essential to the successful operations of their business.
Over 35,500 people in Canada have graduated from the Google Career Certificate program, with 75% of certificate graduates reporting a positive career outcome, like a new job, promotion or raise, within six months of completion.
million
In total, we estimate that Google Cloud is saving 145 million business hours for the Canadian economy each year. This is equivalent to at least $10.1 billion a year in business time savings for the Canadian economy.
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In total, we estimate that by ensuring consumers are trained in cybersecurity, like how to spot fraudulent activity, $2.3 billion could be saved for the Canadian economy each year.
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In 2023, Google.org contributed over $5 million to Canadian nonprofits, through funding of organizations such as the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the International Center of Expertise of Montreal on AI (CEIMIA), the Multidisciplinary Institute for Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience, and others.
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In 2023, the Google Ad Grants program provided more than $90 million in donated advertising to nonprofits across Canada.
Google’s Commitments to Canada
Google remains committed to Canada’s growth and success with a coast-to-coast presence and three distinct offices in Waterloo, Montreal and Toronto. Supporting national and local community organizations across the country has always been core to Google’s mission in Canada.
Through Google.org, Google for Nonprofits and Google for Startup Accelerator programs, the company has provided funding, free tools and resources to help small businesses, nonprofits and community organizations grow.
Google provided in-kind product contributions, through Google for Nonprofits, to Canadian charities, empowering them with access to digital tools that are integral to running their day-to-day operations.
In 2023, the program provided over 16,000 Canadian nonprofits with Google Workspace for Nonprofits access, valued at more than $10 million. The contribution allows these organizations to use Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet and more, at no charge.
In 2023, Google.org contributed over
million
to Canadian nonprofits, through funding of organizations such as Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the International Center of Expertise of Montreal on AI (CEIMIA), the Multidisciplinary Institute for Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience, and others.
More than
million
In 2023, the Google Ad Grants program provided more than $90M in donated advertising to nonprofits across Canada.
More than
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To date, startups from the North American Google for Startups Accelerator have raised more than $348M and created 511 new jobs, with many of them continuing to develop and scale across the country.
Google’s Economic Impact by Province and Territories
Unlocking the AI Opportunity in Canada
In 2017, Canada was the first country to establish a national AI strategy, the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. As a result, Canada is now recognized as a world leader in AI and is the proud home to 10% of the world’s top-tier AI researchers, working on some of the most pressing challenges facing Canada and the world.1
A report from the OECD found that Canada is currently ranked 18th in productivity.2 There’s an opportunity to embrace AI and generative AI technologies to address Canada’s productivity challenges. In the next few years, the economic impact of AI is likely to grow even further, as the adoption of generative AI increases. Generative AI models can help complement the productivity of individual workers, assisting with routine or administrative tasks, and enabling them to get more done faster.
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Our research finds that Generative AI could increase the economy of Canada by $230 billion, the equivalent of 8% of Gross Value Added (GVA). That is a bigger potential boost to growth than the entire Personal Computer or Internet revolution.
hours
Generative AI has the potential to boost Canada’s economy by $230 billion and could save the average Canadian worker over 175 hours a year, which would be the single biggest improvement to worker productivity since the arrival of Google Search and equivalent to flying from Vancouver to Montreal over 37 times!
Beyond the clear economic opportunity of the technology, 59% of Canadians report feeling optimistic about the broader impact technology will have in the next 20 years, rising to 69% of those aged under 35.
On AI specifically and across early adopters3…
Canadians are hopeful about the benefits AI can bring to healthcare, from improving patient care to enhancing healthcare delivery, with 53% of Canadians believing AI tools will have a positive impact.
“The partnership with Google Cloud has been instrumental in transforming our approach to clinical trial agreements. By leveraging generative AI, we aim to speed up the review process, reducing turnaround times and increasing our capacity to handle more agreements which in turn offers greater innovative research and therapies to our patients”
Mani Kang,
Senior Director of Research Operations & Chief Operating Officer at Unity Health Toronto
How Unity Health Toronto is Using Google Cloud AI to Improve Patient Care
Challenge
The process of launching groundbreaking health research and the development of innovative treatments to enhance patient care is a complex multi-step process. A crucial initial phase is the review of a 40-50 page clinical trial agreement, a task that can take a highly specialized reviewer up to 14-18 hours to complete. Reviewing clinical trial agreements remains a largely manual process, requiring a team of skilled reviewers to carefully analyze and revise the document based on a number of guidelines and their prior expertise. Unfortunately, this time consuming process can delay patient access to potentially critically needed research and innovative medical therapies.
Solution & Partner
To address these challenges, Unity Health Toronto and Google Cloud teamed up to create a generative AI tool designed to improve the process of reviewing complex research contracts. Leveraging Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, the tool is trained on historical contracts that have been reviewed by human specialists, enabling it to understand and learn the organization's high standards and expectations. Once deployed, it will help augment the initial review of clinical trial agreements, providing redlined versions for Unity Health Toronto’s staff to validate. This tool has the potential to expedite portions of the contract review process, allowing Unity Health Toronto’s highly trained staff to focus their efforts on other critical areas, such as negotiations and resolving more complex contract issues and, in turn, get patients more timely access to medical treatments.
Impact
Every year, Unity Health Toronto’s research team receives roughly 1,400 research contracts, including approximately 250 clinical trial agreements. By partnering with Google to help streamline its contract review process, Unity Health Toronto hopes to reduce contract review times and improve the organization’s capacity to manage more agreements each year. Ultimately, focusing on what matters most: improving patient care and outcomes.
How Canadians and Businesses are Embracing AI
Many Canadian businesses and individuals already recognize the opportunity AI presents: 74% of Canadians who already use or plan to use AI at their job say it will help them become more productive, and 1 in 5 workers say they already use AI to help them at their job, rising to almost a third of younger Canadians.
While many are still experimenting with how to best utilize AI, over half of AI users (53%) said they had already found real use cases.
In our polling of early adopter businesses…
agreed that AI will make Canadian businesses more productive.
agreed that AI was an important opportunity for the Canadian economy.
agreed that AI would have a positive impact on their sector as a whole.
of SMB leaders use (or plan to use) AI to save time, 46% to save money, 43% to grow their business, and 55% to work more efficiently.
“Google’s AI-powered advertising tools, like Performance Max, opened new opportunities by reaching audiences more efficiently. They allowed us to scale our campaigns – using AI – for quicker ad generation and strategic recommendations.”
Mason Nowak,
Owner of Karen’s Flower Shop
Year-over-year revenue growth
How Google’s AI-powered Advertising Tools are Helping Karen’s Flower Shop Bloom
Challenge
With a 58-year legacy in the floral industry, Karen’s Flower Shop is a multi-generational family business that has grown from selling their flower arrangements to other shops to selling directly to customers. Mason Nowak, who grew up working in the store, is now bringing the business into its fourth generation. “We’re in a very quickly growing community in Milton and we always want to reach people that are new to our community!” says Mason Nowak, of their growth plans. Looking to reach new customers, but faced with fixed budgets, Mason was looking for ways to bring incremental reach without spending more money than he was already investing.
Solution & Partner
Leaning into Performance Max, Google’s AI-powered advertising tool, Karen's Flower Shop was able to experiment with new campaigns, gain insights into how their business was performing, and speed up workflows in smart, responsive ways. With Performance Max, Mason is able to access all of Google Ads inventory within a single campaign and let AI automatically optimize ads so they reach the right customer at the right time. By using these tools, Karen's Flower Shop was able to connect with people most likely to be interested in their floral arrangements, driving higher quality leads and increased conversion rates. Performance Max helped Mason reach the right demographic, expand into new delivery areas, reach new audiences, and focus on securing higher priced orders.
Impact
With the improved campaign performance, Karen’s Flower Shop has seen a +30% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and year-over-year revenue growth of over 10%. Performance Max streamlined campaign creation by identifying new customers and connecting Karen’s Flower Shop with more people looking to send and purchase floral arrangements. “With the improved performance, we’ve seen those customers purchasing larger and higher value orders.” says Mason. Leveraging AI to optimize their advertising efforts, Mason and his team have been able to grow their business and stay competitive, despite their fixed costs.
“Our efforts with Google AI have shown better performance and efficiency. Results are up and we are replicating successes across our various retail banner brands. These programs are not just helping us find volumes of customers in a complicated search
environment. We can hone-in on those who intend to buy products in the categories that matter most to us – providing customers a ready made solution.”
Simone Lumsden,
Canadian Tire, SVP, Triangle Customer Loyalty & Triangle Retail Media
Prospective customers
Staying Ahead of the Search Curve: How Canadian Tire is Using Google AI to Connect with Customers
Challenge
Google answers an average of over 17 million questions for Canadians every hour. And when we look at global searches, 15% of them are completely new. Add that to an overall rise in conversational searches, the way people are searching for information is changing. Facing this changing search environment, Canadian Tire sought to ensure they were optimizing their ad spend and reaching the right audience for their products.
Solution & Partner
To achieve their goals, Canadian Tire embraced Google's AI-powered marketing solutions across many of their major categories in 2024. To keep up with how Canadians are searching and to optimize their spend, the team leaned into Google’s AI-powered performance tools, Broad Match and Performance Max. Broad Match, which uses Google’s AI to help reach more relevant, intent driven searches, allowed Canadian Tire to serve more relevant ads to Canadians throughout their path to purchase. Performance Max enables an advertiser to simply share their campaign goals and creative assets, and the technology automatically produces and runs a highly effective ad campaign across all of Google’s channels, including Youtube, Display, Search, and others. This AI-powered approach enabled Canadian Tire to optimize search ad relevance and save their team time on manual search keyword management so they could focus on building the right creative for their audience.
Impact
The initial impact of deploying Broad Match and Performance Max has been meaningful for Canadian Tire. By leveraging Broad Match and using AI to identify and reach a broader and more relevant search audience, they reached about 50% more prospective customers while holding their investment flat. With Performance Max, they were able to further optimize and capture consumer demand, delivering ROI increases across key product categories. Ultimately, by tapping into Google’s AI-powered tools, Canadian Tire is keeping up with the ways Canadians are searching, reaching new customers, and enhancing their customer experience.
Helping Canadians Gain AI and Digital Skills to Grow their Careers and Businesses
The shift towards embracing AI will also create new opportunities for Canadian businesses and workers. To ensure that the development and use of AI benefits everyone, Canadian businesses will need support through the transition, and Canadians will need help to learn the skills required to succeed in the workforce.
Google is committed to helping Canadians to upskill to help grow their careers and businesses. Our survey finds that the desire for skills training, particularly around AI, is strong and is growing among younger Canadians.4
of Canadians used Google Search to learn more about AI, rising to 65% of young Canadians.
of Canadians workers are interested in AI skilling, rising to 72% of young Canadians.
In 2023, there was a 21x increase in job postings that included AI technologies.5 To ensure the benefits of AI are available to everyone, Google is committed to helping Canadians prepare for the AI-driven jobs of the future.
In 2024, Google launched Google’s AI Essentials, a course to help Canadians gain practical, hands-on AI skills to grow their careers and businesses. To help bridge the opportunity gap, Google partnered with nonprofit organizations including Canada Learning Code, ComIT, Digital Main Street, First Work, and Vector Institute, to grant scholarships for the AI Essentials course to individuals in their network from underrepresented communities.
In addition, Google launched Generative AI for Educators, a free two-hour, self-paced course designed to help teachers save time on everyday tasks, personalize instruction to better meet student needs, and help create engaging lesson plans and materials.
Google’s latest AI skilling initiatives are a part of their broader skilling program with Grow with Google and their Google Career Certificates. Over 35,500 people in Canada have graduated from the Google Career Certificate program, with 75% of certificate graduates reporting a positive career outcome, like a new job, promotion or raise, within six months of completion.
Google’s Impact on Businesses and the Economy
From supporting businesses to reach customers around the world to increasing productivity and collaboration for workers, Google’s products and innovations are helping Canadian businesses of all sizes to grow and thrive.
billion
Based on time saved, we estimate that in a given year, Google services could be producing a $61 billion improvement in productivity for the Canadian economy.
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In total, we estimate that Google Search and Google Workspace could save workers in Canada over 1.2 billion hours a year.
Online Tools to Support Business Growth
Google’s tools and resources are helping businesses large and small by making them more collaborative, discoverable and successful. On average, Google estimates that for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they receive $8 back in profit through Google Search and Ads.
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In 2023, we estimate that Google’s Search and Ads alone helped provide $53.7 billion in economic activity for businesses in Canada.
56% of businesses told us that Google Search is essential to their successful operation.
of Canadian SMBs agreed that Google’s tools and services have helped accelerate the growth of their business, rising to 61% amongst businesses less than 2 years old.
of Google Maps users said they found Google Maps helpful for looking for a new business to try.
“With the help of the shopHERE program powered by Google, I was able to set up a Google Business Profile and reach new customers, build my brand, and grow my business. It was a game-changer for a small business like me.”
Cheyenne Staats
Founder & Owner of Mohawk Beads
From Beads to Business: How Google’s Online Tools are Helping Mohawk Beads Reach New Customers
Challenge
Cheyenne Staats of Bear Clan of the Kanyen’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory is a self-taught artist who turned her passion for beadwork into a thriving e-commerce business. Through Mohawk Beads, Cheyenne is dedicated to selling beading supplies, hosting beading classes, and creating custom beadwork while connecting with Haudenosaunee culture through her art. Initially, Cheyennes’ reach was confined to her local community of friends and family, but she was looking for ways to grow. As a small business owner, juggling multiple responsibilities, Cheyenne needed support so she could focus her energy on creating the custom beadwork that powered her business.
Solution & Partner
Since 2021, in partnership with Digital Main Street, the shopHERE program powered by Google has helped small business owners and artists – like Cheyenne – receive personalized training that’s designed to help them build an online store and grow their digital presence. Through the shopHERE program, Cheyenne received training that helped her build an online site and set up her Google Business Profile and reach a new wave of customers.
Impact
Since working with the shopHERE program and implementing Google Business Profile, Mohawk Beads has reached new customers and experienced sales that were 10x greater in the first three months since going live. With the shopHERE program powered by Google helping Cheyenne kickstart her online presence, Mohawk Beads has been able to reach new customers, strengthen its brand awareness and stay competitive. Now, Cheyenne can invest her time where it’s needed most and on what brings her the most joy; creating custom beadwork and connecting with her Haudenosaunee culture.
Connecting Canadian Businesses to New Audiences – in Canada and Across the Globe
For businesses, Google’s AI-powered advertising tools have unlocked a new world of possibilities. They are helping Canada’s businesses identify new audiences, build their brands both at home and abroad, and stay competitive. For Canadian businesses, reaching new customers in other markets is one of the best ways for them to grow and scale.
In total, we estimate that Google Search and Ads are supporting $7 billion in exports for the Canadian economy.
of Canadian businesses have seen new customers come through online search.
of Canadian businesses said online search engines have made it easier for local customers to find their business, and almost half of Canadian businesses (48%) said online search engines have made it easier for global customers to find their business.
The Potential of Cloud Computing
Google Cloud and Google Workspace are helping Canadians and Canadian businesses boost productivity, collaborate better, gain competitive advantages and work more securely. By allowing businesses to develop new products and prototypes faster, reduce downtime and operate more flexibly, the cloud is supporting businesses to work smarter and more efficiently.
Almost half of SMBs we surveyed (49%) said they used cloud computing tools and overall, 88% of businesses using cloud computing tools say that it was important or essential to the success of their business. For Google Workspace, our survey found that 57% of Canadian businesses use Google Workspace, rising to 77% of businesses with over 250 employees.
In the next few years, generative AI through cloud computing could enable a whole new set of use cases to support Canadian workers and businesses.
We looked at Google Cloud’s impact in Canada over the last year:
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The Google Cloud ecosystem in total generated $890 million in economic activity in Canada.
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We estimate that Canadian businesses have saved $420 million in costs and efficiency by transitioning from more costly on-premise servers to Google Cloud.
million
From a productivity perspective, we estimate that Google Cloud is saving 145 million business hours for the Canadian economy each year. This is equivalent to at least $10.1 billion a year in business time savings for the Canadian economy.
billion
We estimate that Google Cloud boosts the productivity of Canadian SMBs by 5.3%, this would equate to an increase of $16.8 billion in economic activity across the country.
How Google Cloud is Protecting Businesses and Customers
Cloud technologies are helping businesses operate more safely. By working with Google Cloud, organizations can identify threats, mitigate risks, respond to threats quickly, and securely transform their overall infrastructure.
AI is also dramatically improving our ability to address threats online. For example, organizations are using generative AI, including tools like Gemini in Security Operations to help new team members onboard faster, enable analysts to find answers more quickly, and improve the overall efficiency of their security operations programs6. As threats grow more sophisticated, more needs to be done to ensure consumers and businesses are better protected. Google Cloud can support this, by providing customers with tools and services to secure their data, models, applications, and infrastructure.
billion
In total, we estimate that by ensuring consumers are trained in cybersecurity, like how to spot fraudulent activity, $2.3 billion could be saved for the Canadian economy each year.
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By ensuring AI security and automation is used throughout businesses in Canada, $1.5 billion could be saved, a year, for the Canadian economy.
“We have an aggressive goal of moving the majority of Scotiabank’s information and systems to the cloud over the next three years, maximizing the productivity of our business and the safety of our information, and we’re excited to partner with Google Cloud as our enterprise cloud platform of choice to make that happen.”
Michael Zerbs
Group Head, Technology, Scotiabank
How Scotiabank is Partnering with Google Cloud to Strengthen Bank Security
Challenge
As a leading financial institution in Canada, Scotiabank is committed to delivering a secure, personalized banking experience to its more than 25 million clients. To assist in their vision, to be their clients’ most trusted financial partner, Scotiabank was looking for a team to collaborate with to help prioritize and accelerate their innovation, digitization, and modernization while upholding the highest standards of safety and privacy.
Solution & Partner
Scotiabank selected Google Cloud as their enterprise cloud platform of choice to bring their strategic goals and global data and analytics strategy to life. Scotiabank will leverage Google Cloud technology to enhance the client and employee experience, strengthen Bank security, and adopt new technologies, like generative AI, more quickly and securely. Through this collaboration with Google Cloud, Scotiabank continues to innovate and enhance its services, keeping client needs at the forefront.
Impact
Since leveraging Google Cloud’s secure-by-design, secure-by-default cloud infrastructure, Scotiabank has elevated their digital offerings and improved customer service. So far, the partnership is helping to drive the adoption of Google Cloud’s Contact Centre AI (CCAI), is assisting in powering the bank’s award-winning chatbot, and has helped to develop the first cloud-based client data hub for Scotiabank’s Wealth Management business, which includes a robust security and compliance framework to safeguard and govern Bank data.
Beyond the Economy: How Google’s Innovations are Helping Canadians
Google’s products and AI-powered tools are leading to innovations that can have meaningful impact beyond work and the economy. The latest scientific AI breakthroughs have helped power innovations to help to fight climate change, respond to emergencies and remove accessibility barriers.
Emergency Response
In 2023, Canada experienced the most destructive wildfire season in the country’s history and the country’s hottest summer on record.7 In addition, flooding caused damage in almost every region across the country, with parts of Nova Scotia experiencing more than 250 mm of rain in just 24 hours.8 These environmental changes have significant impacts on Canada’s businesses, communities and families. Google is committed to playing its part to help Canada adapt, respond and stay safe.
Public First estimates that using AI and other digital technology to give more immediate and targeted alerts for extreme weather events could reduce the damage to property, people and infrastructure created by climate change induced flooding by $320 million a year.
Wildfire detection
Google has worked with partner organizations and local authorities to help detect wildfires across Canada. By using AI models based on imagery and infrared data from numerous satellite inputs, Google is able to detect wildfire boundaries and show their real-time location in Google Search and Maps. Google is also in a pilot test of their Wildfires Early Ignition Alert, which uses AI to make early detection of forest fires, helping local entities to respond more quickly and effectively.
Flood Hub
Google’s flood forecasting initiative uses advanced AI to provide real-time flooding information to help communities and individuals prepare for and respond to riverine floods. Flood Hub can now warn of floods up to 7 days in advance - helping give communities enough time to share critical information, limit damage and save lives.
These advancements underscore the transformative impact of AI-powered innovation in addressing pressing societal and environmental challenges. Harnessing the power of AI and other technologies has the potential to make significant strides toward a more sustainable and equitable future.
Accessibility
Over a quarter of Canadians aged 15 and older have one or more disabilities – that is over 8 million people9. This year, Google rolled out a host of new accessibility features powered by AI across its products and platforms to help reduce barriers.
Lookout on Android
Lookout is an app that helps people with blindness and low vision use their phone’s camera to get information about their surroundings. It allows users to easily find specific objects by selecting from categories like seating or bathrooms, notifying them of the direction and distance to the item and providing AI-generated descriptions of images captured within the app.
Google Maps
Google has enhanced its accessibility features on Google Maps for people who are blind or have low vision by expanding detailed voice guidance and screen reader capabilities for Lens in Maps. These features provide audio descriptions of nearby places like ATMs, restaurants, and transit stations, including their distance, helping users orient themselves.
Project Gameface
To help make digital devices more accessible for those with disabilities, Project Gameface is a hands-free, AI-powered gaming mouse to allow users to control a computer’s cursor using their head movement and facial gestures.
We estimate assistive technologies (like those described above) could help over 336,000 unemployed or economically inactive people with disabilities in Canada access work, potentially boosting the economy by over $44 billion per year.
Against this backdrop, Canadian adults identified Google Search and Google Maps as being among the three most helpful innovations of the last few decades with Search coming second only to the advent of wifi.
Top 10 Most Helpful Innovations of the Last Thirty Years
1. Wi-Fi
2. Google Search
3. Google Maps
4. Internet Browser
5. World Wide Web
6. YouTube
7. iPhone
8. Gmail
9. Bluetooth
10. Android
Methodology
Economic Impact
Datapoint 1:
In 2023, Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, Google Cloud and Google Advertising tools helped provide $XX billion of economic activity for Canadian businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers.
Google Ads
Following the precedent of past Google impact reports. We first estimate the total revenue of Google Ads in Canada by combining the size of the paid search market in Canada.
Following the methodology of the US Google Economic Impact Report, we then scale this revenue by an assumed Return on Investment (ROI) factor of 8, from:
- Varian (2009) estimates that businesses make on average $2 for every $1 they spend of AdWords.
- Jansen and Spink (2009) estimate that businesses receive 5 clicks on their search results for every 1 click on their ads.
- Google estimates that search clicks are about 70% as valuable as ad clicks.
- Total ROI is then 2 * spend + 70% * 5 * 2 * spend – spend = 8 (spend).
(Source: PWC GEMO 2019-28) with estimates of Google’s share of the search market in Canada (Statcounter)
AdSense
In order to estimate total Adsense revenues, we combined:
- Google’s published Network Revenue
- An assumption on Traffic Acquisition Costs as a % of Network Revenue, based on past published TAC data
- Canada’s share of global non-video display spending, derived from data from Statista Market insight
Cloud (core estimate of economic impact)
In order to estimate total Google Cloud revenues in Canada, we combined:
- Statistical data on total public cloud revenue in Canada
- Statista data on Google Cloud’s market share
- An assumption that every dollar invested in Cloud services by users generates a net return
Android
Following In order to estimate total Android revenues, we take the size of the app market in Canada from various sources. We then combine this with:
- Statcounter data on Android market share by country
- Data provided by Deloitte on the share of developer revenue earned from contract work
- Google Play’s share of the of the market from Statista Market Insights
- The share of the mobile app developer revenue from paid downloads, subscriptions and in-app purchases.
These are used to estimate both the revenue that developers receive from Google Play and revenue received from contract work associated with Android. The total economic impact of Android is the sum of these two estimates.
Provincial Breakdown
To calculate the total economic impact of Google by Province we take the total economic impact in Canada, which consists of Google Ads, AdSense, Cloud, YouTube and Android, and scale using province share of national GDP. For Google Ads, we additionally adjust for province level variation in the size of businesses with regards to number of employees. This is important both because larger businesses spend a lot more on paid search advertising and because there is variation between provinces in this measure.
Export Impact
Datapoint 2:
In total, we estimate that Google Search and Ads are supporting $XX billion in exports for the Canadian economy.
To calculate the economic impact of Google Search in Canada resulting from export activity we start with the total economic impact of Google Search and Ads calculated above, which is essentially an estimate of the total additional revenue that businesses in Canada enjoy as a result of their use of Google Search and Ads. We then estimate the share of that revenue that is attributable to exports by applying an estimate of the share of business revenue in Canada that is due to exports. We take a conservative approach by applying the lower bound estimate obtained from Public First business surveys carried out in Canada between 2023 and 2024.
Other Impacts
Datapoint 3:
Based on time saved, we estimate that in a given year, Google services could be producing a $XX billion improvement in productivity for the Canadian economy.
To estimate the value of these productivity improvements we first calculate the total time saved due to the use, at work, of both Google Search and the Google Workspace suite of tools and products. To estimate the average time saved for workers who use Google Search we combine survey data which estimates how much time the average worker uses Google Search in a day with third party research which tells us how many minutes are typically saved per search (Hal Varian). For Google Workspace we draw on research carried out by Forrester that estimates the hours saved per year for users. We estimate the total time saved in Canada using the share of the working population who have access to the internet and who also make use of Google at work. To convert this to a monetary productivity impact we times the hours saved by the labour rate cost provided by Statistics Canada.
Datapoint 4:
In total, we estimate that Google Maps helps save Canadians over XXX million hours in driving trips a year, which in turn prevents over XX million tons of CO2 emissions from vehicles per year.
This is based on research that provides estimates of the percentage time saved when drivers use GPS devices for unfamiliar journeys. We combine this with data points from our consumer polling and a variety of data sources to estimate the average number of km a car would travel in a year, first without using Google Maps and then with Google maps. We convert this to total km saved using average cars per adult data. Finally, this is converted to total hours saved by using the average speed on Canadian roads.
Productivity Impacts of Cloud
Datapoint 5:
In total, we estimate that Google Cloud is saving XXX million business hours for the Canadian economy each year. This is equivalent to at least $XX billion a year in business time savings for the Canadian economy.
We draw on research by IDC which estimates the percentage reduction in time spent on ICT related issues together with an estimate of the total time wasted by employees on ICT related issues. This estimates the total amount of time saved per employee that uses Cloud Services. We scale this up to a national level using the total number of employees in private enterprise together with survey data which tells us the share of businesses who use Google Cloud. To calculate the monetary value of the time saved we use GVA per employee data from StatCan.
Datapoint 6:
Google Cloud boosts the productivity of Canadian SMBs by X%, supporting $XXX billion of economic activity across the country.
This builds on research from the London School of Economics which estimates the productivity gains from businesses that use Cloud services. We apply this to the average GVA of SMBs in Canada taken from national data to estimate a monetary gain per business. We apply this to an estimate of the number of SMBs that use Google Cloud, taken from our survey, to estimate the total productivity gain.
Datapoint 7:
We estimate that Canadian businesses have saved $XXX million in costs and efficiency by transitioning from more costly on-premise servers to the Google Cloud.
This estimate takes research which estimates the percentage cost saving to business of using cloud computing and applies it to an estimate of the total spent on cloud computing by Canadian businesses.
Potential Economic Impact of Generative AI
We drew on the US O*Net occupation database, which contains information on 51 different types of work activity for around ~800 types of occupation.
Based upon Goldman Sachs’ identification of the types of tasks exposed to automation by generative AI, we classified the proportions of tasks in each occupation that were susceptible to automation. This includes:
- Google’s published Network Revenue
- an assumption on Traffic Acquisition Costs as a % of Network Revenue, based on past published TAC data
- Canada’s share of global non-video display spending, derived from data from Statista Market insight
- We aggregated this into broader economic categories based on their overall share of US employment and average wage bill, and then created our own crosswalk to convert the results from each occupation to the corresponding occupation in ISCO-08.
- We then applied to each country based on ILO data on employment and average wages per occupation. When data is missing, we impute based on a regression against GDP.
- Aggregate by wage bill occupation and sector to produce an estimate of the total possible improvement in labour productivity.
- Assumed capital intensity remained constant and converted this labour productivity improvement into an overall improvement in GVA.
2
0
2
2
- Consultation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Compute (canada.ca)
- OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators 2023
- Defined as those who had used a genAI chatbot
- Defined as those between ages 18 - 24
- https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/economicgraph/en-us/PDF/future-of-work-report-ai-august-2023.pdf?utm_source=www.joinsuperhuman.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=linkedin-21x-increase-in-jobs-mentioning-chatgpt
- https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-3-promising-ai-use-cases-for-cybersecurity
- Natural Resources Canada; Global News
- Reuters
- https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/231201/dq231201b-eng.htm