(Note: This is a reply to Mr. G.'s thread in USeP-IC Web Forum - Assignment 7: Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model...)
Thanks to this assignment I got to know Google better. Well, I have surfed the boundless corners of the web and found numerous results regarding the world’s leading search engine. I have never known Google until I began breaking in to the walls of the global networks and looking for a particular (prominent) search engine which could provide me with what I am looking for even in a blink of a second. To be exact, I am one of the customers who prefer the Google search because of its fast and relevant search results and user-friendly services. I may not have used most of them but I think they are of quality and beneficial to clients. No wonder they are considered as highly-successful Internet business. Know why? Well, let us get to know more about the Google’s business model better…
History says so much of the Google’s background and definitely its fast “rise from the ashes”. I have known that Google actually began in 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Stanford University computer science graduates. Initially called BackRub which operates on the Stanford servers, it changed its name into Google derived from “googol”, a mathematical expression of 10100 (number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros). The term reflects their mission which is to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web (source: Wikipedia & Google corporate information).
Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a global information technology leader, innovating how people connect with information. Google’s automated search technology has made its free search engine website the number one visited website on the Internet, as rated by ComScore[1] and Alexa.com [2] displacing Yahoo… An American public corporation specializing in Internet search, it also generates profits from advertising bought on its similarly free-to-user e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking and video-sharing services. Advert-free versions are available via paid subscription. Google has more recently developed an open source web browser and a mobile phone operating system. Its headquarters, often referred to as the Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California. As of March 31, 2009, the company had 19,786 full-time employees. It runs thousands of servers across the world, processing millions of search requests each day and about one petabyte of user-generated data each hour. (wikianalysis, wikipedia)
An interesting evaluation of the Google’s business model is what I have got from the Vertygo Team: Google had a unique marketing strategy, making it to be the leading search engine in the world in a few years. Vertygo states that the Google’s business model is the winning model as it involves a variety of important factors – a mixture of smart decisions, excellent marketing strategy, great advisors, highly innovative and risky business model, and great products. Several key reasons mentioned are the following: Google has a simple, clean, clear, and minimalistic user interface, has mostly reliable search results, got good advice from partners, and worked very hard on brand building. These essential key factors helped Google deliver their products and services to happy customers.
Google’s competitors:
Other popular names in the internet business include internet content providers such as Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft, MSN, AOL Inc., Disney Online, Move, Inc., Match.com, LLC, Sina Corp., Daum Communications Corp.
How have they used information technology to their advantage?
Google has an innovative culture. Google’s CIO Ben Fried in an article by Brian Watson, believes that IT plays a pivotal role in building a great culture—and subsequently a great company—and he puts it into practice in a number of ways. One thing is, making technology accessible and open. Fried also believes that CIOs can empower their employees to do more by giving the users what they need, instead of what the company believes is best. With this, Google is motivated to develop and deliver products and services that meet their customers’ needs.
On technology overview, Google uses PageRank algorithm and Hypertext-Matching Analysis to provide the fast, accurate, and relevant search results in a fraction of a second. PageRank link analysis algorithm measures the probability that a page will be relevant to user’s query.
How competitive are they in the market?
Google gained competence in the market because of wide user acceptance. In just a few years, as the number of internet users grows, its customers also increase. With a variety of products and services aside from its advertising and web content business, they continue to innovate to please customers and clients by developing and introducing new advancements not only in the web but also in hardware and software aspects. Primary opportunities for revenue are search services and advertising.
Google products and services:
New service for developers: Google is setting up a public code repository for developers
Mobile, desktop (standalone applications and extensions), web (communication and publishing, development, mapping, search, statistics), hardware products and other services.
Google Business Solutions:
Local Business Center
Base: Product Search and more
Webmaster Central
Google AdManager (new! Manage your ad inventory)
Website Optimizer
Google Site Search (Google custom search)
Google Friend Connect (new!)
Google enterprise search solutions (new! Search company information)
Postini services (new!)
Google Geospatial Solutions (Earth, Maps, SketchUp)
I think what makes Google unique is their culture and philosophy. I may not be able to describe it in words but let me repost these statements I have found in the corporate information:
The Google Culture
Though Google has grown a lot since it opened in 1998, we still maintain a small company feel. At lunchtime, almost everyone eats in the office café, sitting at whatever table has an opening and enjoying conversations with Googlers from different teams. Our commitment to innovation depends on everyone being comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Every employee is a hands-on contributor, and everyone wears several hats. Because we believe that each Googler is an equally important part of our success, no one hesitates to pose questions directly to Larry or Sergey in our weekly all-hands ("TGIF") meetings – or spike a volleyball across the net at a corporate officer.
We are aggressively inclusive in our hiring, and we favor ability over experience. We have offices around the world and dozens of languages are spoken by Google staffers, from Turkish to Telugu. The result is a team that reflects the global audience Google serves. When not at work, Googlers pursue interests from cross-country cycling to wine tasting, from flying to frisbee.
As we continue to grow, we are always looking for those who share a commitment to creating search perfection and having a great time doing it.
Our Philosophy
Ten things we know to be true
"The perfect search engine," says co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." When Google began, you would have been pleasantly surprised to enter a search query and immediately find the right answer. Google became successful precisely because we were better and faster at finding the right answer than other search engines at the time.
But technology has come a long way since then, and the face of the web has changed. Recognizing that search is a problem that will never be solved, we continue to push the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use service that anyone seeking information can access, whether they're at a desk in Boston or on a phone in Bangkok. We've also taken the lessons we've learned from search to tackle even more challenges.
As we keep looking towards the future, these core principles guide our actions.
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough. Very well I could find some figures that will describe how Google is competing against its rivals in the international market. Obviously, the industry is not only local but on a global scope so customers and clients, and even employees hired are from all corners of the world. In fact, their company offices are expanding from one country/region to another as opportunity grows supporting more than 20 languages. They have also established partnerships between prominent companies and firms in various fields of industry. Google’s area served is worldwide – making it competent in the international market. Estimated:
Revenue: 31.3% $ 21.796 billion (2008)
Operating income: 30.4% $ 6.632 billion (2008)
Net income: .6% $ 4.227 billion (2008)
Total assets: $ 31.768 billion (2008)
Total equity: $ 28.239 billion (2008)
Employees: 19,835 – December 31, 2009
I would like to give credits to the following references and sources especially the official Google sites which helped me in making the above composition:
Google
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
List of Google products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products
Google (GOOG)
Google business solutions
http://www.google.com/services/
Watson, Brian P., December 10, 2009, Google it: IT’s Competitive Advantage, Expert Voices
http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Expert-Voices/Google-It-ITs-Competitive-Advantage-234347/
Google Marketing Strategy, Vertygo Team
http://www.vertygoteam.com/google_marketing_strategy.php
Google facts
http://www.slideshare.net/kimuh72/google-facts-216737
Rogers, Garett, July 24, 2006, New Google service for developers
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=271
Google Corporate Information:
Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/index.html
Google Milestones
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html
Technology Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
Google culture
http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html
Business Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/business.html
Quick Profile_Facts
http://www.google.com/corporate/facts.html
Our philosophy
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
Google strategic analysis
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_%28GOOG%29
All about Google presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/misteroo/all-about-google-presentation
Google Inc. (GOOG) competitors
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=GOOG
How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/69/google.html
business models on the web
http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html
Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_googlenomics?currentPage=1
History says so much of the Google’s background and definitely its fast “rise from the ashes”. I have known that Google actually began in 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Stanford University computer science graduates. Initially called BackRub which operates on the Stanford servers, it changed its name into Google derived from “googol”, a mathematical expression of 10100 (number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros). The term reflects their mission which is to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web (source: Wikipedia & Google corporate information).
Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a global information technology leader, innovating how people connect with information. Google’s automated search technology has made its free search engine website the number one visited website on the Internet, as rated by ComScore[1] and Alexa.com [2] displacing Yahoo… An American public corporation specializing in Internet search, it also generates profits from advertising bought on its similarly free-to-user e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking and video-sharing services. Advert-free versions are available via paid subscription. Google has more recently developed an open source web browser and a mobile phone operating system. Its headquarters, often referred to as the Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California. As of March 31, 2009, the company had 19,786 full-time employees. It runs thousands of servers across the world, processing millions of search requests each day and about one petabyte of user-generated data each hour. (wikianalysis, wikipedia)
An interesting evaluation of the Google’s business model is what I have got from the Vertygo Team: Google had a unique marketing strategy, making it to be the leading search engine in the world in a few years. Vertygo states that the Google’s business model is the winning model as it involves a variety of important factors – a mixture of smart decisions, excellent marketing strategy, great advisors, highly innovative and risky business model, and great products. Several key reasons mentioned are the following: Google has a simple, clean, clear, and minimalistic user interface, has mostly reliable search results, got good advice from partners, and worked very hard on brand building. These essential key factors helped Google deliver their products and services to happy customers.
Google’s competitors:
Other popular names in the internet business include internet content providers such as Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft, MSN, AOL Inc., Disney Online, Move, Inc., Match.com, LLC, Sina Corp., Daum Communications Corp.
How have they used information technology to their advantage?
Google has an innovative culture. Google’s CIO Ben Fried in an article by Brian Watson, believes that IT plays a pivotal role in building a great culture—and subsequently a great company—and he puts it into practice in a number of ways. One thing is, making technology accessible and open. Fried also believes that CIOs can empower their employees to do more by giving the users what they need, instead of what the company believes is best. With this, Google is motivated to develop and deliver products and services that meet their customers’ needs.
On technology overview, Google uses PageRank algorithm and Hypertext-Matching Analysis to provide the fast, accurate, and relevant search results in a fraction of a second. PageRank link analysis algorithm measures the probability that a page will be relevant to user’s query.
How competitive are they in the market?
Google gained competence in the market because of wide user acceptance. In just a few years, as the number of internet users grows, its customers also increase. With a variety of products and services aside from its advertising and web content business, they continue to innovate to please customers and clients by developing and introducing new advancements not only in the web but also in hardware and software aspects. Primary opportunities for revenue are search services and advertising.
Google products and services:
New service for developers: Google is setting up a public code repository for developers
Mobile, desktop (standalone applications and extensions), web (communication and publishing, development, mapping, search, statistics), hardware products and other services.
Google Business Solutions:
Local Business Center
Base: Product Search and more
Webmaster Central
Google AdManager (new! Manage your ad inventory)
Website Optimizer
Google Site Search (Google custom search)
Google Friend Connect (new!)
Google enterprise search solutions (new! Search company information)
Postini services (new!)
Google Geospatial Solutions (Earth, Maps, SketchUp)
I think what makes Google unique is their culture and philosophy. I may not be able to describe it in words but let me repost these statements I have found in the corporate information:
The Google Culture
Though Google has grown a lot since it opened in 1998, we still maintain a small company feel. At lunchtime, almost everyone eats in the office café, sitting at whatever table has an opening and enjoying conversations with Googlers from different teams. Our commitment to innovation depends on everyone being comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Every employee is a hands-on contributor, and everyone wears several hats. Because we believe that each Googler is an equally important part of our success, no one hesitates to pose questions directly to Larry or Sergey in our weekly all-hands ("TGIF") meetings – or spike a volleyball across the net at a corporate officer.
We are aggressively inclusive in our hiring, and we favor ability over experience. We have offices around the world and dozens of languages are spoken by Google staffers, from Turkish to Telugu. The result is a team that reflects the global audience Google serves. When not at work, Googlers pursue interests from cross-country cycling to wine tasting, from flying to frisbee.
As we continue to grow, we are always looking for those who share a commitment to creating search perfection and having a great time doing it.
Our Philosophy
Ten things we know to be true
"The perfect search engine," says co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." When Google began, you would have been pleasantly surprised to enter a search query and immediately find the right answer. Google became successful precisely because we were better and faster at finding the right answer than other search engines at the time.
But technology has come a long way since then, and the face of the web has changed. Recognizing that search is a problem that will never be solved, we continue to push the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use service that anyone seeking information can access, whether they're at a desk in Boston or on a phone in Bangkok. We've also taken the lessons we've learned from search to tackle even more challenges.
As we keep looking towards the future, these core principles guide our actions.
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough. Very well I could find some figures that will describe how Google is competing against its rivals in the international market. Obviously, the industry is not only local but on a global scope so customers and clients, and even employees hired are from all corners of the world. In fact, their company offices are expanding from one country/region to another as opportunity grows supporting more than 20 languages. They have also established partnerships between prominent companies and firms in various fields of industry. Google’s area served is worldwide – making it competent in the international market. Estimated:
Revenue: 31.3% $ 21.796 billion (2008)
Operating income: 30.4% $ 6.632 billion (2008)
Net income: .6% $ 4.227 billion (2008)
Total assets: $ 31.768 billion (2008)
Total equity: $ 28.239 billion (2008)
Employees: 19,835 – December 31, 2009
I would like to give credits to the following references and sources especially the official Google sites which helped me in making the above composition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
List of Google products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products
Google (GOOG)
Google business solutions
http://www.google.com/services/
Watson, Brian P., December 10, 2009, Google it: IT’s Competitive Advantage, Expert Voices
http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Expert-Voices/Google-It-ITs-Competitive-Advantage-234347/
Google Marketing Strategy, Vertygo Team
http://www.vertygoteam.com/google_marketing_strategy.php
Google facts
http://www.slideshare.net/kimuh72/google-facts-216737
Rogers, Garett, July 24, 2006, New Google service for developers
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=271
Google Corporate Information:
Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/index.html
Google Milestones
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html
Technology Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
Google culture
http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html
Business Overview
http://www.google.com/corporate/business.html
Quick Profile_Facts
http://www.google.com/corporate/facts.html
Our philosophy
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
Google strategic analysis
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_%28GOOG%29
All about Google presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/misteroo/all-about-google-presentation
Google Inc. (GOOG) competitors
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=GOOG
How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/69/google.html
business models on the web
http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html
Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_googlenomics?currentPage=1
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