Google Inc free essay sample

This report aims to provide feasible growth strategies to Google Inc. who is facing different courses of action to pursue. The objectives of this report are to compare different market opportunities available to Google on the basis of implementation feasibility and growth potential and to make the most feasible recommendation to Google. From industrial and internal analysis conducted, it is found that search industry is still favorable for Google. In addition, Google is in a great position in the industry with its unique search solutions and advertising techniques. However, with its creativity-oriented culture and diversified products and services, Google can also venture into other market opportunities such as ecommerce, portal and PC application services. Factors to be considered are mission alignment, growth potential, potential competition and required expertise. Portal business and PC application services are less suitable for Google since they are not aligned with its mission while e-commerce business, being a high growth potential market, can be integrated with its search engine. Therefore, key recommendations for Google are 1. to stay focused in search area, improving its search techniques as well as developing value-adding products and services 2. to venture into ecommerce area, using its search engine as an advantage over competitors such as eBay Table of Contents Executive Summary1 I. Introduction3 II. Situational Analysis3 1. Porter’s Five Forces Model3 2. Internal Analysis4 i. Strengths4 ii. Weaknesses4 III. Analysis of Options5 1. Staying focused in Search area5 2. Becoming a full-fledged portal6 3. Venturing into desktop applications6 . Providing e-commerce services7 IV. Summary of Analysis8 V. Recommendations9 1. Improve in search area9 2. Venture into e-commerce business9 VI. Conclusion9 Reference10 Introduction Google has been a dominant player in the search engine industry since it was established in 1999. Google’s mission, being to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, Google has focu sed on improving search techniques. Google has also gained a position in online advertising industry as a result of its dominant market share in search industry. During these years, Google has grown rapidly by developing new products and services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Books and so on. These developments have given Google opportunities to venture into new areas such as portal services like Yahoo! , application services competing with Microsoft and e-commerce areas dominated by eBay and Amazon, leading to the question of whether the next move should be venturing into one of these areas or staying focused in the search engine industry. In order to answer this question, this report will 1. Analyze the industry forces as well as internal strengths and weaknesses of Google 2. Compare the four options that Google is currently facing 3. Recommend Google the most feasible strategies based on the analyses conducted. Situational Analysis Porter’s Five Forces Model Power of suppliers – there are content providers and application developers as suppliers of Google. Being a key player in its ecosystem, its suppliers do not have much power on Google. Power of buyers – advertisers rely on Google for its unique search advertising and its market leader position in search engines. However, it is possible that users may switch to another search engine which can provide faster and better search results. Threat of new entrants – it is unlikely to have new entrants because of high barriers to entry such as capital and infrastructure requirements. However, there are possible threats of new search technologies. Threat of substitutes – there is no potential threat of substitutes due to users’ high reliance on Internet technologies. Degree of Competition – intense competitors among few competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo! , but not as competent in search engines as Google. Internal Analysis In addition, search algorithms are not optimized yet, allowing opportunities for improvement. Therefore, there are a lot of areas for improvement in search area to maintain its dominant position in the industry. Still, the search industry will be matured in the near future, which means that although it is a ‘star’ right now, it will turn into a ‘cash cow’. Therefore, Google should start moving towards new areas such as portal, ecommerce and PC applications. Google is one of the few organizations with strong culture and beliefs. When considering new markets, an important factor that needs to be considered is whether the strategy aligns with its mission statement, and accordingly its values, since the backlash against unaligned strategies might be caused within the organization. Since portal business and PC applications business are not aligned with Google’s mission, it should not go into these businesses. For e-commerce, although it may be an unfamiliar area, it has great market growth potential. Recommendations Based on the synthesis made on industry and internal analyses, there are two recommendations for Google. Improve in search area Google should stay focus on its core competencies which is web search and online advertising. It should invest in improving its search solutions and also develop products and services to maintain differentiated in Internet advertising. Rather than becoming a full-fledged portal like Yahoo! with a high degree of personalization, Google should focus on developing new features like Gmail which would add value to the search and advertising area. In addition, it should work on its public relations to improve its image being negatively affected by lawsuits concerning with privacy and copyright issues since reputation is also important in search business. Venture into e-commerce business Google should step towards e-commerce business as a market creator like eBay. It can take advantage of its large amount of search traffics to attract customers as well as its advertisers as suppliers. In order to prioritize its efforts, it is recommended to invest 70% of resources into earch area, 20% into value-adding features such as Gmail and 10% into new ecommerce business, using its 70/20/10 rule. Conclusion â€Å"We do search†, as written in Google’s Statement of Philosophy, Google’s core business will always be search business. To be able to maintain a sustainable advantage in search area, Google needs to improve its search technologies. But, since the search engine industry will mature in the future inevitably, Goog le also needs to find new markets and develop expertise to dominate those markets, with its mission statement guiding those strategic decisions.