Introduction
Google is an American multinational company providing online services to customers globally. Google is a global leader in technology, including search, internet advertising, cloud computing, software, and hardware (Attaran et al., 2019). The firm has been around since 1998 and has become a dominant force in the digital economy and one of the world’s most valuable corporations. In recent years, Google has encountered various difficulties, from concerns over user privacy and security to government pressure to implement new regulations on the digital industry.
Recently, Google has been experiencing various concerns over privacy and security, from rivalry with other digital firms to government regulatory constraints. In this article, I will discuss the importance of maintaining customer confidence in Google’s goods and services and the need to develop successful tactics to battle competition in the technology industry as two of the company’s most considerable difficulties today. I will analyze the company’s background, goals, organizational structure, competitive strategies, evaluation of difficulties, key performance indicators, trends, and developments, and offer suggestions for how to proceed in light of these findings.
History, Mission, Structure
In 1996, while undergraduates at Stanford University in California, computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a search algorithm named “BackRub” with Scott Hassan and Allan Steremberg (Doeden, 2021). The Google search algorithm was developed from this, and the company was first introduced on September 4, 1998. Google’s search engine became immensely famous, and the company eventually settled in Mountain View after moving several times. Its growth following the company’s initial public offering in 2004 helped it into the ranks of the world’s most prominent firms. In 2002 and 2004, respectively, the company produced Google News and Gmail. Products like Google Maps (2005), Chrome (2008), and Google+ (2012) are just a few of Google’s many releases throughout the years (which was shut down in April 2019). 2015 marked Google’s rise to prominence as Alphabet Inc.’s most visible subsidiary.
There have been several updates to search engine algorithms that are directly counteracting SEO. Google has worked with a wide range of different companies and organizations. They range from NASA and AOL to Sun Microsystems and News Corp. With a primary focus on philanthropic efforts, Google founded Google.org as a separate organization in 2005.
Due to Google’s success, other major tech firms have grown and posed a more significant threat. The competition between Google and Microsoft is a good illustration of this. Microsoft had been promoting Bing as an alternative to Google’s search service.
The company’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google has become an industry leader in technology, with a broad range of products and services, including search, online advertising, cloud computing, software, and hardware. The company is organized into several business units, including Google Search, YouTube, Ads, Cloud, Android, Chrome, and Hardware.
A cross-functional organizational structure, often called a Matrix corporate structure, is used by Google. The three fundamental characteristics of Google’s organizational structure are function-based definition, product-based definition, and flatness (Green et al., 2020). Executive management receives direction from the board of directors, which oversees the corporation. Departments under their purview include Sales, Finance, Product Development, Engineering, Legal, and Finance. Sub-departments exist inside each of these departments. The sales department, for instance, is split up into divisions catering to specific regions, such as the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Google’s corporate culture is built on a foundation of employees being given significant latitude to create new ideas without heavy scrutiny, despite the company’s conventional corporate organizational structure.
Objectives
Google’s algorithm is constantly tweaked to keep up with consumer preferences and stamp out spammy SEO practices. The past ten years have seen the most important Google algorithm adjustments ever made, aiming to provide better search results and give more visibility to the best, most relevant material. In addition, Google hopes these changes will help eliminate mediocre material from search results. Today’s SEO should not influence search results because doing so might lead to penalties for websites that violate quality rules. Sometimes a penalty is warranted when a website is identified for one of many possible reasons. As a dictatorial ruler, Google does not punish websites. Google has always favored sites that provide visitors with original, high-quality content and relevant ads.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a crucial business tool organizations use to assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Teoli et al., 2019). It is a powerful tool for identifying and analyzing internal and external factors affecting an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives. By understanding the SWOT of a business, an organization can make informed decisions on how best to capitalize on opportunities while minimizing risks and threats. A SWOT analysis allows an organization to evaluate its current position and develop realistic strategies to achieve its goals.
Strengths
Google is one of the biggest companies offering wider services to its customers. Some strengths helping google gain competitive advantages include a dominant market position, technology, and access to adequate financial resources.
Google has strong access to financial resources used to finance its strategic planning leading to competitive advantages. The company has diversified its operations to cloud computing and hardware devices that generate a lot of revenue used to finance various revenue-generating programs leading to more revenue. Increased access to finance enables Google to hire competent and qualified staff committed to implementing effective strategies used as a route map to success. Google has an efficient technological innovation making their services highly preferred by customers. Technological innovations are directed to various areas, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud computing. Again, Google has a dominant market position since it is the leading search engine with a large market share. The primary reason for the large market share is the quality of services, increasing customer loyalty, thus attracting and retaining more customers.
Weaknesses
Despite Google being one of the largest companies, it is faced with some weaknesses. These include dependence on advertising and privacy concerns. Under privacy concerns, Google has been criticized for failing to keep customers’ data confidential. Some scenarios exist where third parties access customers’ information without their consent. Despite Google taking various measures to address this problem, no effective measure has been successful, as the challenge still exists. Most customers are losing their faith in google. Dependence on adverting is one of its weaknesses. Significant revenue is generated from adverts made by various companies. Slight changes in marketing affect the company negatively as the revenue depreciates. Increased competition arises from other rivalries.
Opportunities
Some major opportunities Google is entitled to include access to large markets, revenue diversification, and global expansion. Google has diversified its operations to other revenue-generating activities. Therefore, it does not rely much on advertising revenue. Some of the major diversification areas include e-commerce, online transactions, and subscription-based operations. Global expansion and access to large markets are achievable because of significant investments made. It offers high-quality products like cloud computing, hardware devices, and artificial intelligence leading to market expansion.
Threats
Google operates in an industry characterized by stiff competition from existing firms and the threat of new entrants. The major threats include increased competition, regulatory risks, and cybersecurity threats. Firstly, the regulatory risks negatively impact Google and its operation in expanding its market to reach various customers globally. Increased regulatory scrutiny over data privacy has been a major concern in its operation. The government is imposing some regulations regarding customers’ data; most of them are not met by Google. Cybersecurity concern is a major threat that has been facing google for a long time. The company collects customers’ data, security, and access to various accounts, increasing access to attacks from hackers and data breaches. These breaches reduce customer loyalty, thus demotivating them from using Google services.
Additionally, Google faces stiff competition from other major companies. Some of the key competitors in the industry include Apple Inc. and Amazon. These companies have significantly invested in technology, thus attracting more customers. They compete with google for customers globally to gain significant market share.
Competitive Strategies
To ensure it is competitive and experiences a large market share, Google has employed several effective and viable strategies to use and dominate the global market and be the leading digital services provider worldwide. The company has made various effective investments, strategies, and resource allocation as some of the major activities and route maps to achieve success. One effective strategy adopted to help gain a competitive advantage and large market share is that Google has acquired companies such as YouTube and Waze, enabling the company to expand its reach and access new markets. As a result, its revenue has increased. Some of its competitive strategies include cost leadership differentiation and increased focus directed at customers.
Google differentiated itself from its competitors by offering various services using innovation to achieve customers’ needs and expectations; this has been its long-tie strategy. Its services are reliable, cheap, secure, and easy to use, leading to increased satisfaction. Another competitive advantage is that Google maintains core competencies to create good customer-company relationships. The key competencies include increased technological innovations and search engine technology to analyze data and help other companies advertise their products. Cost leadership is a competitive advantage used b google to gain competitive advantages. Cost leadership has been achieved by leveraging economies of scale and implementing effective technology in its products and services.
Diversification opportunities
Google has various diversification opportunities to help achieve targets and revenue. The major opportunities include healthcare, financial services, transportation, and education. Firstly, Google offers education services to help learners access online study material and classes. This has been achieved by designing an online Google classroom to connect learners from different parts. More classroom tools and resources are being implemented to help promote online education curriculum and meet learners’ needs and desires. Google has designed various innovations in the transportation sector, such as the autonomous vehicle division. Various transportation platforms have been designed to help customers book online flights. Other innovations are being implemented to meet the current market’s requirements. In finance, Google has developed online financial services such as money transitions and banking. In healthcare, an AI-powered tool has been designed to help healthcare service providers analyze medical images, identify a suitable cure, and connect with patients in tracing their progress.
Assessment of Challenges
Cybersecurity concern is a major threat that has been facing google for a long time. The company collects customers’ data, security, and access to various accounts, increasing access to attacks from hackers and data breaches. These breaches reduce customer loyalty, thus demotivating them from using Google services. Google also faces stiff competition from other technology companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. These companies have significantly invested in technology, thus attracting more customers. They compete with google for customers globally to gain significant market share.
Under privacy concerns, Google has been criticized for failing to keep customers’ data confidential. Some scenarios exist where third parties access customers’ information without their consent. Despite Google taking various measures to address this problem, no effective measure has been successful, as the challenge still exists.
The company has employed several strategies to combat this competition, such as investing in research and development, user relationships with users, and using acquisitions and partnerships to expand its business. Some scenarios exist where third parties access customers’ information without their consent. Despite Google taking various measures to address this problem, no effective measure has been successful, as the challenge still exists. Most customers are n losing their faith in Google. The last challenge is the regulatory issues as the government imposes the obligations Google must observe in its operation. The regulatory risks negatively impact Google and its operation in expanding its market to reach various customers globally. Increased regulatory scrutiny over data privacy has been a major concern in its operation. The government is imposing some regulations regarding customers’ data, and most of them are not met by Google.
KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to measure the success of a company’s products and services (Ghahremani-Nahr et al., 2021). In 2021, Google’s revenue was $181.7 billion. This shows an increase from the previous years by 32%. A significant portion was obtained from advertising services. The company shifted its advertising strategies to digital, thus reaching a significant market. The sudden rise of Covid-19 resulted in most companies digitalizing their services. Therefore, this made Google have more new customers who promoted this growth. This increase will continue as more effective strategies are implemented in the coming years. Customers’ satisfaction has increased for the past three years. Clear evidence is an increased number of positive reviews and referrals. Customers’ engagement in its platforms increases daily, showing its commitment to promoting effective promotional strategies. Various risks accompany the performance, including increased competition from other companies. In response, Google has increased technology innovation to help it become the market leader.
Trends and Developments
Today, the technology industry is experiencing faster growth dues to increased demand for services and products, leading to more firms entering the market. In response, Google’s focus on innovation remains competitive in the industry. The company invests heavily in artificial intelligence, which could open up new markets and revenue streams. This includes developing new algorithms for machine learning and natural language processing and deploying AI-powered products and services such as Google Assistant and Google Cloud. Also, as part of strategic development, Google is investing in emerging technologies, such as virtual reality and autonomous vehicles, which will increase revenue, thus promoting growth and expansion. Google is also exploring new applications for its products and services, such as virtual and augmented reality, which could provide potential new markets and revenue streams. Again, the company is expanding its operations into new markets, such as healthcare and education, which could provide new growth opportunities. For example, the company is investing in telehealth solutions, which could provide new ways for people to access healthcare services. Additionally, the company is investing in online learning tools and platforms, which could provide new education opportunities.
Conclusion
Today, the technology industry is experiencing faster growth due to increased demand for services and products, leading to more firms entering the market. In response, Google’s focus on innovation remains competitive in the industry. Google is one of the biggest companies offering wider services to its customers. Some strengths helping google gain competitive advantages include a dominant market position, technology, and access to adequate financial resources. Google was founded in 1998, which means it has been in operation for the past 25 years providing services to its customers. The products include Android, Nest, Waze, YouTube, and Pixel. These products are highly demanded worldwide, increasing revenue for the company. Also, it provides Google maps for its customer to help locate different places. Providing quality products has been the key to success and becoming the global market reader.
Dealing with external and internal challenges
Google must employ competent staff to ensure there are effective strategies being implemented to help remain competitive. It must create an enabling environment that motivates employees to continue working and remain competitive. Also, Google must incorporate the spirit of internal competition. This will help improve efficiency and effectiveness. Employees will compete to develop effective strategies. Internal competition reduces laziness within the organization, thus reducing incompetence.
Recommendation
I recommend that Google conduct more profound research on industry trends and service development. Industry analysis will ensure it has identified an effective approach to dealing with customers, how to satisfy them, and product development approaches. This will ensure it remains competitive in the market. The company should also focus on transparency and communication by providing precise and easy-to-understand information about its products and services and their privacy and security measures. Also, Google must work closely with other companies and conduct more mergers. It must continue with its strategies of acquisition to increase its market share.
References
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Doeden, M. (2021). Sergey Brin: Groundbreaking Google Founder. Lerner Publications™. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TI80EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT10&dq=computer+scientists+Larry+Page+and+Sergey+Brin+developed+Google.+Latest+Article+from+2019&ots=lHbo6v2Gyd&sig=a9V5NePRLT6D5vfqQG9oVimSed4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ghahremani-Nahr, J., & Nozari, H. (2021). A Survey for Investigating Key Performance Indicators in Digital Marketing. International Journal of Innovation in Marketing Elements, 1(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.52547/ijime.1.1.1
Green, D. D., Polk, X. L., Custer, K., Johnson, A., Loyd, J., Pettijohn, J., & O’Donnell, H. (2020). The Disruptiveness of Technology: A Case Study of Google Dominance. Manag Econ Res J, 6(2). https://merj.scholasticahq.com/article/13518.pdf
Koser, C., & Klaus, J. (2020). Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google – A correlation analysis: Evidence from a DCC-GARCH model. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3718788
Teoli, D., Sanvictores, T., & An, J. (2019). SWOT analysis. https://europepmc.org/article/med/30725987
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