Clash of the Ti-Tans
Four unrelated men, their ambitious goals and the race to become king of digital age. In fact, every time when I turned on the computer and on line, I cannot help but contribute revenue to both Google and Facebook, and when I off line, at home or go out, I also cannot help but contribute revenue to some state linked enterprises. A company headed by its visionary founders is a powerful force not to be reckoned with. Talking about blue oceans strategy, each of the four technology companies is founded on a market that has not existed before and now, each trend into some niche areas of the others which the other three is unable to provide. And everyone knows Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. We cannot escape from contributing to their coffers.
In the beginning, everything is clear cut, Search belongs to Google, Social network belongs to Facebook, online retailing belongs to Amazon, and ieverything (Mp3 players, smartphone, tablets and even personal computer) belong to Apple. Each is king in their respective markets, and each is lacking something another has, and each has the potential to be all things to all people.
In barely a decade since Google is founded in 1998, it has since produce countless innovations, back when people told Sergey Brin and Larry Page that search engine is a dying business simply because there is no way to effectively monetize the high traffic. They actually believe in it, which is why they offered the whole of Google to Yahoo for US$1billions. However, a decision by then Yahoo CEO means that they are fated not to be become multi-millionaires but billionaires.
Google innovation philosophy – Life is always in beta, multiple iterations are always better than trying to get it right the first time.
In its 12 years of existence, Google total produced not one, not two but three brilliance and resulting US$30 billion per year from these three brilliance – Pagerank technology, Adwords search advertising and Adsense contextual advertising. Many of key concepts behind them were burrowed and then iterated.
Adwords quality score and alignment of interests’ concepts
Adwords advertising model was burrowed from Overtune but it does not stopped there. Overture’s pay-per-click auction model allowed advertisers to buy their way to the top of the listings — highest bid gets the most exposure. On the surface, it seems that this will result in maximum revenue for Google, but it is not, when one does not balance the interests of all involved parties, the outcome is a smaller economic pie. Adwords quality score is introduced to balance the interests of all three parties – searchers, advertisers and Google itself, and to bring search advertising to be more in line with the ideal of developing a more perfect search engine.
Facebook increasingly dominating of the social graph and eyeballs, and taking away of some advertising pie along with it, prompted Google to start Google Plus and cofounder Larry Page to tie all employees’ bonus to success of making Google more social. Its announcements on acquiring cell phone maker Motorola Mobility also send the company into Apple’s smartphone turf. Apple built its success by selling hardware and making them work seamlessly with its software programs. The Motorola deal practically means Google will not only be offering Andriod but also make the smartphone.
In the movie, the Social Network, Mark Zuckerburg became well known as the person who turned down a million dollars from Microsoft. But what is relatively unknown is that he actually turned down a billion dollars from Yahoo just years later. In the summer of year 2006, Yahoo attempted to acquire the company for $1 billion dollars. Reports actually indicated that Mark Zuckerberg made a verbal agreement to sell Facebook to Yahoo. A few days later when Yahoo’s stock price took a dive, the offer was lowered to $800 million and he walked away from the deal. Yahoo later offered $1 billion again, this time Mark Zuckerberg decided to turn down Yahoo and earned instant notoriety as the “kid” who turned down a billion.
Wisdom of friends Vs Wisdom of crowds – Do some information and answers best provided by networks of friends instead of search queries?
Facebook announcement of intention to enter online search market put it directly into Google’s home ground. But the social network ideal of a search engine is one based on wisdom of friends instead of wisdom of crowds.
Harvard programming genius Mark Zuckerburg actually gets an A+ for a non-computing module at Harvard University. His grander vision in which people consult their network of friends for information instead of entering search queries in text field comes from this same module for which he receives an A+ at Harvard University. The professor of the Arts module gives him an A+ because he created a platform where students collaborate with each other and result in a better outcome. The class as a whole got better grades than usual.
Indeed, how is Google going to develop a perfect search engine when the information that people wanted has not been created yet. Google powerful search algorithms depended on the wisdom of crowd while Facebook for a subset of information spaces , such as the problem faced by Mark himself at Harvard, is more able to give you exactly what you want based on the wisdom of friends. As you can see, a particular subset of information is something that Google is unable to offer because first, it has not been created until you asked the question, and second its accuracy is better when depended upon the wisdom of friends and lastly, the answers and information can only be created by network of friends.
Apple
Apple makes its billions from selling something that is supposedly to be a commodity business. Hewlett Packard recently announces the sale of its PC division even though it is still making a profit. The sale marked further consolidation in Windows based desktop PC industry, leaving behind only Lenovo, Dell and Acer.
Steve Jobs goal and mission to make the best computers, not to place a PC on every home and office desk may cause Apple to lose the entire PC market to Microsoft Windows, yet ironically, when applied to other technology gadgets such as Mp3 players, Smartphone and tablets (i-redesign for a better user experience), allows Apple to overtake Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company.
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