For this blog I want to talk about of one of the biggest magnates in the Tech World. I am going to talk about a company that has been an important part of our lives for many years, and their influence on us is growing even stronger today. Yes, you guessed right, I’m talking about Google.
Well to commence strong, let me tell you (if you didn’t know already) Google has now become the second most profitable tech-business in the whole world! Last Monday, Google overtook Microsoft as the world’s second-most valuable technology company as the firm kept on the rising track it’s been on for the past three months.
The company has been climbing steadily since July, when shares were trading at around $570 each. Right now, shares are trading around $767, that’s about a 34% growth in less than 4 months, that’s an awesome deal if, I can say. Furthermore, I think Google’s shares are going to continue on this track for a while, so if you are thinking about investing in a business, as I am as soon as I get some money, perhaps you should take a special consideration in the company.
In fact, I think that Google is the ONLY company, Facebook should seriously watch out for.
Here is what I think:
Google+ is Google’s social network. It is based on the concept of “Circles”, and making every existing Google product socially compatible. We are talking about Gmail, YouTube, Picasa, Google Maps, Google Chrome, and so on. Sign in once, and you are in all the accounts you need.
Ok its true, Google+’s 100 million monthly active users represent barely 10.5% of the 955 million monthly active users Facebook has. If we base our opinion these facts, it is unimaginable to think that Google+ might EVER dethrone Facebook, this would be trying to hit Facebook in its strongest characteristic, Facebook is already too huge to compete with them from this angle.
To challenge Facebook, Google+ needs to exploit Facebook’s weakest spot and show Facebook users that Google+ is going to be more functional and interesting in the future. So what’s Google’s weak point?
Mobile phones.
Mobile is the future, at least foreseeable future, even Facebook has admitted this. And Facebook has achieved huge amounts of revenues and improved and acquired apps such as Instagram – who added even more users to the already huge user base. Nevertheless they are still very vulnerable in one place: They don’t have their own mobile operation system on hundreds of millions of phones like Google or Apple does.
Google, on the other hand, has passionately expressed its desire to integrate Google+ into all of his products, including the very popular Android phone, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. “Circles” turns out to operate really nice and smooth on Androids phones, and the fact that Google+ is a very personal social network allows the web noise to be reduced and more focused on content. That means not having our attention drawn to Farmville or TowerStack. It just looks more clean and professional.
However, Google still needs to find a way to emotionally connect with his users and show the quality of their social network. Even with the millions of Android phones circulating, Google hasn’t been able to hook its users with Google+, but if they can find that bond, they could bring down Facebook.
One advantage that Facebook has is that it is not involved in a war for mobile dominance with another Silicon Valley company, Apple. Google’s Android OS has Google+ built in on most devices. On iOS, Google+ is an installed app. Facebook, meanwhile, now is integrated on the new iPhone 5 and easily installable on both os’es. Thoughts?