Google began as an online search firm, but it now offers more than 50 internet services and products from e-mail and online documentation for mobile phones and tablet computers. In addition, the 2012 acquisition of Motorola Dynamics has put it in a position to sell hardware such as mobile phones. Google’s comprehensive product portfolio and size make it one of the top four impressive companies in the high-tech market with Apple, IBM, and Microsoft. Despite these innumerable products, its original search tool remains the origin of its success. In 2016, Alphabet earned all its revenues from Google advertising on the basis of users’ search requests.
Google – Company Highlights
| Name of the Company | |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 4, 1998 |
| Founders | Larry Page and Sergey Brin |
| CEO | Sundar Pichai (October 2, 2015-) |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California, US |
| Parent Organization | Alphabet Inc. |
| Website | www.google.com |
Google Business Model
Google’s Business Model Change Over The Next Ten Years?
Google’s Other Products
Google Funding And IPO
Google Interesting Facts
Swot Analysis of Google
Google Business Model
The Google Inc business model can be seen more clearly when it is divided into a few key areas:
Key Partners: Google’s key partners include Suppliers, Distributors, Open Handset Alliance, and Original Equipment Manufacturers.
Key Activities: Key activities include research and development for both the development of new technologies and features and the improvement of existing ones. Significant time is spent in the maintenance and management of large-scale IT infrastructure and products and services. Apart from this, work is done on marketing, strategy and alliances.
Key Resources: Google’s core resources will include data centers, servers and other IT infrastructure, IP as well as human resources. Other resources include patents, licenses and proprietary materials.
Value Proposition: The company aims to create value for its customers for internet search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and the enterprise. The overreaching principle is derived from the mission statement to manage the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Channels: Channels to reach customers include google.com, Google affiliate website, and Google Ads Words. Sales and support teams are involved to reach advertisers and network members.
Customer Relationships: The channel can include sales and support services as well as a dedicated team for large customers to build customer relationships.
Customer Segment: Google has three main customers. Users who are able to organize information in a useful way using Google products and services, advertisers who have an effective way of displaying online and offline advertisements for customers and members of the Google Network and other content providers, Those who use the Ads Sense service. Other expanded segments may include mobile device users and manufacturers and developers.
Google’s Business Model Change Over The Next Ten Years?
Here are the Major Trends:
- Search traffic is moving to mobile and voice. This reduces advertising revenue
- Advertising is moving from traditional to digital. This increases advertising revenue.
- Servers and services are moving to the cloud. This increases cloud revenue.
- Supporting-based tools are ecosystem coalescing. The effect is… complicated.
- AR / VR. Google’s bet is on phone-based VR.
The magnitude of trend 2 surpasses the magnitude of trend 1, so Google’s advertising revenue will continue to grow indefinitely.
Trend 3 is all the opposite. The main question is whether they can hold on to Amazon and Microsoft, and if not, can they build a fairly profitable business from third place. Strategically, they are unlikely to make major changes to their cloud strategy until they exit the market entirely, which seems impossible.
Trend 4: The instrument, is an interesting one. This is an important new market for Google which, in the best case, outperforms other tech companies in profits. This is their best chance to build a huge new profit center. The Google device is well-positioned to win the competition. They have better AI than Amazon and Apple, they have a phone that Amazon doesn’t, and they have a successful speaker device, which Apple doesn’t. However, things can change rapidly, such as Amazon launching a successful phone.
It is also unclear how big the market will be. Google’s system, which makes phone calls on your behalf, hints at the size Google sees in this market: Vishal. If Google is able to use AI to transact with humans, then a whole host of tasks will be automated and the value will be very high. This would be so disruptive that they would have to carefully consider the social consequences. But it represents another revenue source with advertisements. On the other hand, if accessories remain merely a technological toys, then Google won’t really lose anything. Like trend 3, it is all upside down.
Trend 5 has no upside or downside for Google. If it turns out Google is right, then AR / VR will not be a significant revenue source for anyone. If they are wrong, some other company will get rich. This is a big trend in the industry but one Google is staying away from most.
So overall, Google’s big business model shift will be a new AI-based device and services ecosystem. This is his big bet for the coming decade
Google’s Other Products
Some of Google’s other basic products include:
- Google News: The service started in 2002 as an automated service, which summarizes news items from multiple websites.
- Google Fiber: The Google Fiber Project began in 2010. The plan was to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network in some US cities. Kansas City was chosen as a pilot project, and the project was completed in 2012.
- Google Phone and Android OS: Google launched Android, a mobile phone operating system in 2007. Google acquired the OS as open-source software and allows developers to use software development kits to develop applications. Google also released a phone called Nexus One.
- Google Chrome: Google Chrome was announced in 2008 as an open-source web browser. Google Chrome OS was launched in 2009 as a Linux-based operating system. The OS only supported a web browser, which is used to log people into their online Google accounts.
- Google Goggles: This is a mobile application for Android and Apple iOS. It is used for image recognition and image-based searches. The application can identify historical sites, scan business cards and even solve riddles.
Google launched the ‘Shopping’ tab to enable users to flip through the products and direct them to the merchant websites or e-commerce platforms when searching for products to buy in June 2020. Similar to the News and Image tab on Google, the shopping tab allows users to seamlessly control their search by putting necessary filters and browsing the desired product through listing on different websites. Google has collaborated with e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Myntra, Koovs, etc., to join the company’s shopping tab initiative.
“We are always exploring options to help consumers find the products they want to buy more quickly and efficiently from local merchants,”
The Google spokesperson confirmed the latest initiative in an email response claiming that the feature will facilitate customer online shopping more efficiently from the local merchants as well along with e-commerce players. Reportedly, Google has collaborated with the leading e-commerce platforms including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra and Paytm Mall on board in their latest project.
Besides, the search giant also intends to tap the SME space from local Kirana stores (like JioMart) to expensive art collection stores whose merchants are not necessarily listed on the e-commerce players’ websites. The ongoing talks between Google and retailers both big and small will help the search giant understand the country’s shopping trends. These local merchants need not necessarily list on platforms like Amazon or Flipkart.
Another Google spokesperson said, “ They (Google) will partner with retailers of all sizes. It can tell the user where the product is available, is it available online, etc. For now, this service is being provided free of cost.”
Through Shopping Tab, Google lists products through its ‘product listing ads’, the Shopping tab will give users a lot more control. For instance, users can filter the product they are looking for based on price or any other attributes such as price, seller, delivery, department, colour, shape, and so on…, while also getting more details of the product by going to the ‘details’ page.
The most popular search engine operating company, Google was functioning the Shopping tab in 30+ countries when last reported in June 2020. On the merchant side, anyone with a product feed can plug into Google’s merchant centre to be listed on the shopping tab. On the user side, the tab has also seen high rates of engagement, largely due to the specificity that product search allows filter by attributes. With 80-85 million online shoppers, India is an important market for Google.
Google Funding And IPO
The company got its first financing from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bectolsham. The company had financed 100,000 US dollars before the incorporation. Page and Brin tried to sell their website for 1 million US dollars in 1999 because they thought it was distracted by the work of their PhD. They went away and went to secure $25 million in funding from major investors. Among them, Cleaner Perkins Kaffield and Biers along with Venture Capital companies like Secucau Capital were included. The company’s IPO was five years later. 19, 605,052 shares were presented at $85 per share on the August 19, 2004 IPO of Google. Morgan Stanley and Credits were underwriters for Suisse Deals and an online auction system was also prepared for the sale of shares. The valuation of Google at IPO was $23.1 bn. Sales were worth $1.67 billion and by 2014, the company’s market capitalization was then worth $23 billion, which increased to $397 billion.
The company has secured around $36.1 mn in funding:
| Date | Name of the Funding Round | Funding Raised |
|---|---|---|
| June 1, 2000 | Funding Round | $10 mn |
| June 7, 1999 | Series A | $25 mn |
| November 1, 1998 | Angel Round | $1 mn |
| August 1, 1998 | Angel Round | $100 K |
The company retained control of most shares. There were mistakes that the IPO will impact the company’s culture through the impact of the company, such as a sudden millionaire situation of shareholder pressure and many officers on paper. The founders addressed these concerns and assured potential investors that the company’s culture will remain intact. To ensure that it is continuing, the company has a designated main culture officer. This role is served by the director of human resources and its purpose is to ensure that culture and methods are developed and maintained and be kept right for the original values that form the company’s base. Over the last few years, there were concerns and suggestions that the company has lost a bad way of anti-corporate thinking and has also given some allegations about sexuality and age. However, none of them turned out to be true.
Google Interesting Facts
- The name of Google is taken from Googol, which is equal to the number 1 after 100 zero (1 x 10 ^ 100).
- The original name for the backrub search engine was until Sergey Brin and Larry Page Google’s URL Google, Inc.
- Google registered its domain on September 15, 1997.
- Google’s URLs are often misspelled. For example, the user queries of Google, often become www.gooogle.com, www.gogle.com, and www.googler..com, however, all of them are owned by Google, Inc.
- According to the 2013 PU Research Center survey, most Internet users (about 56%) have to use Google to find information about themselves
- The Google search technology is called PageRank.
- Withholding a dominant 91.94% market share, when last reported in 2021, Google is the biggest search engine.
- Google has an enviable 24.4 million followers on Twitter.
- Google turned out to be unreachable for 5 minutes on August 16th, 2013. It was found that on that specific time interval, global internet usage saw a fall of 40%.
- We all know Google has a Twitter account. But do you know Google’s first tweet? You would be surprised that the first tweet that came from the colossal search engine operator was: “I’m feeling lucky” in binary code.
- Google has made its homepage available in 80+ languages.
- Google’s revenues mostly come from the advertisements it features. It drew 89% of its revenue from advertisements in 2014.
Yash Gupta
Swot Analysis of Google
Google’s Strength
- King of Online Search: Google is the undisputed king of the online search engine division. It processes about 2% of world questions.
- Huge Market Share: Currently, Google has a 28% share in the worldwide desktop searches market.
- Invincible: So far, no competitor has come close to challenging its position, let alone its market share in the search engines.
- Largest Traffic Generator: Every month, this powerful brand generates over 1.2 billion hits. It is the largest traffic generator and has a clear advantage over its competitors such as Bing, Yahoo, Baidu.
- High Revenue: The huge revenue of $65 billion (2017) that Google has gained through various partnerships with various sites has ensured its growth.
- Adaptability: Google has successfully adapted mobile and Android technologies, giving Apple the ability to compete directly with the iPhone
Google’s Weakness
- Reputation is being affected as users and governments feel that they do not up to their social corporate responsibility.
For example not paying enough tax on profits. The social network site Google Plus has failed and will be shut down. The main income is from advertising revenue. This can be a problem if advertisers decide to cut their costs.
- Dependence on the Internet
- Minimal physical presence
Google’s Opportunity
- Wearable market: In November 2019, Google acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion to compete with Apple and Samsung in the attractive and growing wearable (smartwatch and fitness band) market.
- Android OS: The most important opportunity for Google is its noticeable efforts in Android operating system provisioning. This has strengthened their chances of competing directly with Apple iOS.
- Google Glasses and Google Play: Google is set to market its newly launched Google Glasses and Google Play. This can boost the progress and development of Google.
- Cloud computing: With its storage and cloud solutions, cloud computing can play a significant role in Google’s marketing enterprise. In January 2018, Google introduced a new digital store, which provides cloud-based software to all organizations. Correspondingly, the company also launched Mobile Iron, Inc., To integrate its Orbitra Commerce platform with Mobile Iron’s app distribution, security, and analytics capabilities.
- Non-advertising business model: Google needs to start a diversification process and aim to create a non-advertising business model accordingly. There is a need to further enhance adaptability by committing to more commercial transactions. This will ensure permanent revenue
Google’s Threat
- Market Shares Decline: According to data gathered from Emarketer, Google’s US digital advertising revenue is expected to see a decline in market shares. It was 38.8% (2017), 37.2% (2018). The reason for this is the increasing competition from Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and Snapchat for advertising market share.
- Gender Bias: A Google memo published by its employer James Damore has sparked a strong debate on the issue of gender bias and free speech in the company, highlighting its diversity policy.
- Change Of Information: China has drawn a lot of criticism over its alleged cooperation with China on the search engine project (Dragonfly) by the censors.
Antitrust controversy: Google has been involved in antitrust disputes for years with US and EU lawmakers. Anti-EU antitrust regulators fined EUR 5 billion which Google has sought to challenge. - Censorship Policy: Google has not managed to protect itself from backlash over its censorship policy. Many whistle-blowers have started leaking about its political, and ideological leanings.
- Competitors: Google is the primary threat from its rivals Facebook and Amazon. Both competitors are slowly joining up with Google. Their new features and increasing popularity can take the headlines away from Google.
Yash Gupta
Conclusion
Google’s SWOT analysis shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the largest online search engines. The popularity of Google allows it to enjoy huge profits.
The search engine keeps growing every year and keeps improving its technology. If Google addresses its weaknesses and threats, no other competitor can outperform or match this company.
FAQs
Who created Google?
Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Who is Google CEO?
The CEO of Google is Sundar Pichai.
What is Larry Page’s net worth?
Larry Page’s current net worth as estimated by Forbes in April 2022 is $111 bn.
What is Sergey Brin’s net worth?
The net worth of Sergey Brin is $107 bn.
What is Google known for?
Google is a multinational conglomerate that is known for the creation of the world’s most popular search engine platform.
What year was Google founded?
Google was founded in 1998, on the 4th of September.
