Using drones to provide Internet services? Unfortunately, Google and Facebook have failed

The scenario sounds like science fiction: autonomous drones powered by solar energy hovering for weeks or months at a time, providing high-speed internet connections to unserved parts of the planet.

This was once Google 's lofty ideal, and it founded a company called Titan Aerospace in 2014. Google hopes to help a large number of users get online for the first time through this Internet connection method.

However, Titan did not exist for long. After Google reorganized to form Alphabet, the Titan project was incorporated into Google X, a Google lab that was responsible for exploring some crazy ideas or projects that were unlikely to be realized. Later, the Titan project was merged with Wing, another drone project under Google X, which focused on using drones for package delivery. Google X also confirmed that the company had stopped the Titan project last year and reassigned some of its employees to other departments.

Titan Aerospace UAV

It’s another setback in the internet space race, which has seen Google, Facebook and other companies scramble to build satellites, drones and other flying devices that can connect to the internet, take photos and provide other useful services from the sky.

According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Skybox Imaging, a satellite company that Google acquired for $500 million in 2014, has been put up for auction. Google renamed Skybox Imaging Terra Bella after acquiring it.

Facebook has tried hard to describe the blueprint of Internet drones and satellites, but so far there have been few results. It is worth mentioning that Facebook's Aquila drone suffered a "wing break" in its first test, which seems to be different from the wonderful story the company envisioned for technology media The Verge.

Facebook's internet satellite AMOS-6 was destroyed in a SpaceX rocket explosion last September. Facebook did not blame the explosion, but its severity dealt a heavy blow to the company's plans. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg still said at the time that he was committed to developing space internet.

To be fair, what Facebook and Alphabet have tackled is not an easy project. If they can truly achieve their original goals, the rewards will be huge.

The competition in the space sector is not an area that Internet companies are familiar with. Compared with the Internet sector, which is almost hands-off by the government, regulators often set many red lines for the space sector. Due to the poor media environment, once these projects have problems, such as crashes, explosions and other unfortunate accidents, the disastrous consequences are often more concrete.

Of course, Google and Facebook have plenty of money, but even the biggest tech companies can’t always back projects that don’t pay off, because providing internet via drones, satellites or balloons is a very expensive project and the business model is unproven.

Google X said it will continue to pursue its goal of providing internet service from the air through Project Loon, which currently produces high-altitude hot air balloons. However, given the pressure on Alphabet's companies to prove the feasibility of their projects recently, even Alphabet's beautiful hot air balloons may soon run out of steam.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.