As engineers that how we'd like to view the world, but that's not how accounting and business management work. Those engineers are a cost, nothing more. The sale of ads is Google primary source of income. The fact that engineers had to build the tools and platform for selling those ads is irrelevant. The technical stuff is "done" at this point, and now the sales people need sell enough inventory to make up the cost of production.

Even if you're a pure software company, one that sells software, the developers are still a cost, that does not directly contribute to revenue, only the sales department does.

Logically it's a bit silly, because you need to build stuff to sell it, but that's not how account and management view the world.

No, the sale of AD SPACE is Google's primary source of income. And that AD SPACE is primarily in Google's own software products (Search, Mail, Maps etc) although of course they've built a platform for others to sell related ad space...

>the developers are still a cost, that does not directly contribute to revenue, only the sales department does. Logically it's a bit silly, because you need to build stuff to sell it, but that's not how account and management view the world.

The recent season of Silicon Valley had a hilarious arc depicting this thinking. But it's important to note that not all business organizations maintain that philosophy