Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) saw its stock decline 3.9% on Tuesday after Google introduced a new preview capability for its BigQuery data analytics service that allows users to run a single SQL query across data located in multiple geographic regions.
The BigQuery feature, termed "global queries" by Google, is designed to let analysts and engineers access and analyze datasets spread across regions without having to construct complex ETL - extract, transform, load - processes to consolidate that data first. By simplifying the query layer for distributed data, the function replicates one of the core conveniences that Snowflake has marketed: unified analysis of datasets regardless of where they reside.
Google framed the capability as respecting existing governance and security frameworks. According to the announcement, project administrators must explicitly enable global queries for their projects, and the feature is presented as compatible with controls that organizations use to meet compliance obligations tied to regional data handling.
The company also highlighted EssilorLuxottica as an early adopter that has used the preview. Beyond that testimonial, the announcement signals greater competition in the cloud data warehousing and analytics arena as major cloud providers expand their built-in analytics offerings.
For multinational firms that operate with datasets distributed by region - for reasons including latency, operational organization, or legal data sovereignty - the new BigQuery capability could be attractive because it can reduce the operational burden of moving or copying data just to perform cross-region analysis.
Market reaction to the news reflected investor concern about how enhanced native analytics from cloud platforms may affect specialist providers. Observers noted the announcement amid a broader industry trend of cloud providers enhancing their native services, which can exert competitive pressure on standalone data warehousing companies and influence expectations about growth trajectories.
At this stage, the BigQuery global queries feature remains in preview and requires administrative opt-in. The longer-term market impact will depend on adoption patterns and how enterprise customers evaluate trade-offs between native cloud analytics and third-party data warehouse products.
Key points
- Snowflake shares dropped 3.9% on Tuesday following Google's BigQuery global queries announcement.
- BigQuery's preview feature enables single-statement SQL queries across multiple regions, reducing the need for complex ETL pipelines when analyzing distributed data.
- Sectors affected include cloud data warehousing, cloud platforms, and enterprise data analytics for multinational corporations.
Risks and uncertainties
- Unclear adoption rate - the feature is in preview and requires explicit administrative enablement, so enterprise uptake is not yet established.
- Competitive pressure - enhancements to native cloud analytics services could challenge specialist data warehouse providers, potentially affecting their revenue growth trajectories.