Google

Google’s main focus is to push the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use service that anyone seeking information can access. Google has been focusing on providing the best user experience possible. Its key ingredients are relevance, comprehensiveness, freshness and speed providing users with best possible result. Google wants to have an improved infrastructure to make their engineers more productive. They want to expand the workforce for anticipated growth, expand further into international markets, and continue developing new products

Google wants to push their add system since they take it very seriously. In addition, support thousands of advertisers to use Google’s Ad Words program advertising. It also focuses on innovation and make sure that their tools are running everywhere. Similarly, competitor like Apple, Facebook has been attacking Google from all side so they focus on development and research to bring new products to users Google’s Financial Position As of quarter ended September 30, 2013, Google has had another strong quarter $14. 9 billion in revenue. It was increase of 12% when in comparison to the 3rd quarter of 2012.

The revenue increased from $14. 1 billion in Q2 to $14. 9 billion in Q3. The Earnings per share was $8. 71 billion in Q3 2013 when in comparison to $6. 47 billion in Q3 in 2012. The Beta ratio of Google was 0. 87 which is higher than the industry 0. 74. The price to earnings ratio of Google was 30. 54. The Sales considering a 5 year growth average was 24. 77 which is a high when in comparison to the industry. The EPS considering a 5 year growth average was 19. 55. The capital spending by Google is relatively smaller as compared to the industry. The quick ratio is 4. 74 which is good. It shows how liquid the firm is.

The current ratio is 4. 76. The long term debt to euity ratio is 2. 7. It is due to the acquisitions made by Google. The total debt to equity ratio 2. 7 which is good. The profitability ratios, gross margin 5 year average is 62. 19% which is good. The earnings before interest, tax and dividends for a 5 year average are 36. 84%. The Net profit margin for 5 year average is 24. 43%. The return on Assets (5 year average) is 15. 17. The return on equity (5 year average) is 18. 43. These are lower than the industry averages. The return on the assets and equity of Google are low. It has to be improved in order to maintain the profitability.

The profits when in consideration alone are high, but when in comparison to the investments and the equity, it is low. The overall profitability of Google is high, this is due to the high advertising revenues and also due to the various acquisitions. Google’s External Opportunities and Threats Google doesn’t have a geographic dependence because Internet search is applicable globally to all race and cultures. Google has its offices globally in many countries. Google offers a personalized search engine for the various countries and as the language support improves the company is looking at an increasing market share.

With the widespread availability of computers, tablets, IPads etc over the world, the use of internet is on an ever increasing rise. Google looks to making the experience of the web better and more personalized. They look into helping the customer access what exactly he/ she wants. They also are very interested in helping the developers to contribute to the online system more easily. In this paper we have used the Porter’s 5 force model to analyse the external environment and also to understand the industry. 1. Potential new entrants It is low for Google. Potential new entrants have to take into consideration the resources available.

Firstly they require a huge capital to build a sophisticated and complete network , both in terms of infrastructure as well as contacts. Furthermore Google is a established company, with a strong brand name. Also, the intense competition in both the online advertising industry and the search engine industry reflects that the market is relatively saturated. Despite the low switching costs, it is very unlikely for a potential new entrant. 2. Bargaining Power of customers It is strong. Buyer power is strong both in the internet and computer software industries. There are many competitors that host alternatives to Google’s offerings.

Majority of Google’s revenue is generated from advertising. If people reduce the use of Google’s services then the profitability of Google will be affected. As the switching cost is low, Google comes up with variety of products to meet the needs and expectations and wants of the people. Also to attract the customers, it is constantly coming up with various techniques and products. Most of the Google products require the creation of accounts, which enable Google to track the interests and purchasing behaviour of the buyers and also helps them to be in track by coming up with various products.

There are also many companies that create mobile phone operating systems , making it possible for customers to buy other products that are not Google based. This creates a situation which enables buyers to control the pricing. 3. Bargaining power of Suppliers This is low. Google’s ad system is a reliable source of Income because both the ad-making partner and ad-receiving individual are both Google’s clients. In 2011, Google earned revenue of USD 37. 9 billion, which its 96% came from online advertising. The finance and insurance industry was the largest portion of advertisers, spending over USD 4 billion.

The Ad Word bidding system eliminates rare negotiations between advertisers and Google salesperson as well as concerns about price increases, and it makes billing simple and more transparent. Advertisers have no bargaining power as Google controls most of the internet search ads. The Android phone system has been selling with great success for all mobile phone companies, so suppliers of these items want to maintain a good relationship with Google as well, putting them in a somewhat powerless position

4. Competitive Rivalry It is moderate. Google does have its competitors, the two strong ones being Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing, it still commands a large majority of the internet services. Google’s search engine is the most used year after year, with innovations like Google doodle, Google earth, Google+, etc. , leaves the competitors to try really hard to catch up. Google has been successful in staying ahead when in comparison to yahoo and Microsoft. When introducing the Android operating system, Google put themselves in competition with Apple’s iPhone.

While it may be true that Android phones make up a larger share of the market than iOS phones, Apple only has a few versions of a phone that uses their OS. Many different companies have released Android power phones, making the market much more saturated. However, there is no one Android phone that would come close to the market share of the iPhone on its own. 5. Potential Substitutes This is very low. The internet has become the primary source for information gathering and queries, and the backbone of this is built off search engines and other services that return the results needed.

With such a commanding presence, Google has itself positioned for long term success in the market. As of now there is no foreseeable substitution for Google Inc. Google Internal Strength and Weaknesses S. W. O. T analysis is the analytical analysis for this paper to discuss the internal strength and weaknesses of Google. Google provides soft-wares such as Google chrome, Google toolbar and, Gmail. They started as a search engine but it has continually improved to enhance its many operations and also generate revenue through advertisement that is cost effective and highly relevant.

They have an opportunity to grow by analyzing its current status which involves doing an analysis of S. W. OT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and, Threats), through improving strength, reducing its weaknesses, taking advantage of the opportunities and being aware of the threats (Barosso,2003). According to Barosso (2003), it is important to distinguish between strength and weaknesses because they affect the company’s internal environment. Google has gained upsurge popularity because of its technological advancement. This technological advancement provides users with better experience.

Many companies have failed to revolutionize web searching; therefore, Google can maintain its brand equity through strong marketing, good business leadership, and effective financial management. Google Inc. remained the most profitable even when there was global recession In 2008 and it earned a total of five billion dollar revenue through advertising which was a seven percent increase from a year ago (Barosso, 2003). This was attributed to the rising spending on its website and Google Adwords, which is an advertisement program, allow businesses to display their products and services.

Businesses pay if their link, which appears in the search results, is clicked on. Google has much strength, but it is coupled with some setback. The two primary weaknesses that have been exposed to weaken Google are issues of technology and filtering of information. Page ranking in Google has been manipulated due to political reasons. Google watch has criticized these ranking techniques on Google page, as they discriminate new websites. As a result, Google has been facing many lawsuits. In 2006, kinderstart. com sued Google because their page ranking was set to zero.

Different people have voiced this like MyTrigger. com and a transport tycoon Sir Brian Souter. Another issue that contest Google’s reputation is the filtering of material supplied. Filtering image and text has been inadequate to Google. Filtering contents is necessary to protect children from explicit online contents. Competitors such as AOL, Yahoo and, Microsoft have been researching on how to filter website URL contents. The United States justice department encouraged a study inviting all search engines to research on how to filter contents in order to protect on children from explicit online contents.

Google withdrew from this afraid they would give of their trading secrets and privacy. This was not a good move because it portrayed poor choice from the manager considering their content was not up to standard according to the United States government. Google is capable of monopolizing if it changes its current position. Business Strategies Google mostly depends on one source of income, which is Google advertising and having a strong financial base is a long-term strategy for Google. In order for Google to have a fast income growth, Google should diversify its earnings and risks.

It should look for alternative ways to offer advertisements such as offline. This is a long-term strategy to close the niche for offline and online advertising. The company plans to achieve offline advertisement to become almost similar to online advertisement. Google Wallet long-term strategy will also improve on Google weaknesses such as privacy especially with increased consumer’s transactions requires more privacy. Google should turn their strategy into action based on their course of their performance. The ultimate goal is to arrange information gathered from the world and make it universally it available to users.

They should systematically unfold strategies to revive integrated action plans. Google going for everything that is connected with its core business is a great strategy. This is because Google needs new sources of revenue and have a competitive advantage over its competitors. One of Google weaknesses was patent litigations. This patent litigation is costly and time consuming. These litigations have distracted the company’s performance on innovation. Google’s competition strategy is to acquire intellectual property. Acquiring Motorola was not a strong strategy for Google because Motorola has not been performing very well.

This is evident because Google Motorola has been making many losses and an increased competition from rivals has diminished its brand strength. However, Google should take advantage of its hardware and its market share to complement its software products. The new Motorola phones should increase Google market share. Google should take advantage of the growing number of internet users and has a chance to increase revenue from the advertising service and mobile device users. The new Google fiber cable will deliver internet content a hundred faster than the current provider will.

Google investment on this infrastructure will give them a competitive against its rivals. Implementation of strategy Google should use its strong financial situation to implement its long strategy by advancing its research and development of products. Google’s revenue is fifty million dollars making it among most profitable and successful companies worldwide, which has mostly been generated from desktop users, but the number of mobile users, are increasing very fast. By taking advantage of the number of mobile users, this creates platform for its Good Adwords service which is it major source of revenue.

Additionally, launching its notebook, tablets and, smart phones into the market will strengthen its market share. This will diversify Google income and integrate its software products. Increase in Google products such as Google maps, drive, and OS will rank Google search index better. Google should also focus on hiring of additional staff and evaluating staff through SMART which increases employee productivity (Mantere 2012) or holding competitions to come up with innovative products and ideas to diversify. They should also research on ways to promote Google Wallet competitiveness as a medium for online payment.

On the marketing department, Google should make some of its products premium. Some of these products such You Tube can broadcast Movies and Music videos for customers to who intend to sell their services. Google should also re-introduce Google Affiliates and market it along with Google Adwords as an alternative. The use of Google Affiliates is important because it provides users with an alternative that charges on fixed cost and is suitable to assist businesses and customers in educating customers as well as reviewing businesses in industries such as Travel and Hotel businesses, which are sensitive.

This can advance to make Google Wallet the medium of payment and use of maps to locate the business locations. This will improve Google’s profitability. Basing on Pro-forma financial statement there will be a significant increase on the total revenue due to the number of mobile users increasing, but the overheads will increase as the budget for the research and marketing departments will increase but the effect will not be significant as it is a fixed cost. Revenue would also be increase from additional revenue from Google Wallet transactions.

Strategy Review and Evaluation Google should determine its SMART goals so that they can review its strategic process to analyze the employee motivation and productivity. An income statement for the period needs to be made for evaluation of the sales. Google should analyze if there was a positive progress and compare its income statement before these strategies were implemented. They should also evaluate its success through surveying its customers and business associates.

For the re-introduction of Google Affiliates results can be analyzed by the number of businesses signing in for this product, as well as the number of customers liking this on Google plus product. The revenue generated from the commission earned can be used to quantify the financial success. The subsequent success of this product will also will also assist in evaluation of Google Wallet product. Conclusion Google started as a search engine but has continually improved to enhance its many operation and also to generate its revenue.

Google has opportunity to grow and monopolize by analyzing its current status carefully and taking the advantage. Google will continually gain upsurge popularity because of its technological advancement. This is evident with the release of Google smart phones and tablets. Google going for everything that is connected to its core business was a great strategy. Acquiring Motorola will help Google in the long run because of its market share. In order for Google to gain a competitive advantage from its competitors, Google should stop relying on one source of revenue.

Grand Challenge and its SIS$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense. The team developing the system consisted of 1 5 engineers working for Google, including Chris Rumors, Mike Montenegro, and Anthony Elevation’s who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges [1-2, 8, 10]. The Google self-driving car is equipped with an autopilot system, and capable of driving from one point to another without aid from an operator [3-4].

Our focus in this marketing plan will be on enterprise businesses, rather than only solutions for individual end users. Google is already in the enterprise market. Our marketing plan starts with the product itself and product analysis. And then, a Technology Assessment is discussed and the product propose, components, features, ND values provided to enterprise customers are explored. The market analysis shows potential customer segmentations. The decision of choosing targeted early adapters and early majority is explained, and the technology adoption lifestyle curve and crossing the chasm are illustrated.

In the customer analysis section, the targeted customers in depth by giving a definition and exploring their activities are explained. The role of self-driving technology in the work process is shown, and the customer perceptions are investigated. The competitor analysis section gives a imitative landscape to map Google’s competitors by giving an in-depth elaboration on every competitor’s pros and cons and their place in the landscape position and uses the SOOT analysis to show Google’s points of strengths, weaknesses; current and potential opportunities and source of threats.

The market strategy talks about positioning, promotion, and distribution. The finance section illustrates the product pricing, costs, revenues, revenue allocation estimates, expenses budget, and customer value pricing. Company Overview Larry Page and Sergey Brine, two PhD students from Stanford University, founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology. Google, incorporated in September 4, 1998, is a global technology company focused on improving the ways people connect with information. The Company generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising.

The Company’s business was focused on areas, such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise [5]. In order for Google to achieve their goals, it strategically acquired more software and internet companies. The Company competes with Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo! Inc. , Faceable, Inc. , Twitter Inc. Amazon. Com, Inc. And eBay Inc. Google X, located in Bay area of San Francisco, is a secret facility to experiment with futuristic ideas. It has about 100 employees and generates hundreds of ideas each year.

The lab selects only one or two ideas each year and implement those selected ideas. It birthed such as the augmented reality glasses, self-driving car, space elevator, and Web of things [6-7]. Partnerships and Strategic Alliance Google implements the same business strategy as Nexus business model to their Google self-driving business model and initially they partner with Toyota to cultivate heir self-driving technology in the automobile industry. Google and Toyota create horizontal partnerships, and provide Jointly used and complementary products.

This will lead Toyota to revolutionize its car industry to bring the new experience of driving to its customers. Partnering with Toyota, gives Google an access to the automobile market by using the Toast’s distribution channel, reducing the primary investment for them to enter the market. This will further cut down their risk of investing alone in this new innovation. Toyota as partner will provide the services such as updating the software, maintenance of the self-driving car. Product Analysis Product value According to the World Health Organization, more than 1. Million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. We’re also confident that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow. ” These highway trains should cut energy consumption while also increasing the number of people that can be transported on our major roads. In terms of time efficiency, the U. S. Department of Transportation estimates that people spend on average 52 minutes each working day commuting.

Imagine being able to spend that time more productively. We’ve always been optimistic about technology ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today. While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting. Advocates of self-driving cars promote the safety of computer controls and the environmental benefits of more efficient travel.

For his part, Ford envisions that the features of self-driving cars will change transportation as much as the various new types of perpetrations, from electric to hydrogen, which will propel them. He underscored the urgency of figuring out self- driving because of sheer population growth as well [6]. Technology Assessment The Google self-driving cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps collected using manually driven icicles to navigate the road ahead.

This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by the cars when mapping their terrain. The system combines information gathered for Google Street View with artificial intelligence software that combines input from video cameras inside the car, a ILIAD sensor on top of the vehicle, radar sensors on the front of the vehicle and a position sensor attached to one of the rear wheels that helps locate the car’s position on the map. The system components are: 1. ILIAD 2. Video Camera 3. Position estimator 4.

Radar Mostly everyone has seen or heard about Google’s drivers car. People want to know what is on top of the now famous cars. The cars navigate by a technology called ILIAD and the device seen on the roof is a ILIAD sensor. Though it may seem futuristic for a car to run on total autopilot, actually the technology behind it has been in use for several years. The Google drivers car is predated by “Stanley’ which was developed in 2005 by Sebastian Thru, the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who is now employed by Google.

The car won a $2 lion prize, taking first place in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, which is a Department of Defense sponsored competition for drivers vehicles. Thorn is also responsible for developing Google Street View. The Google car combines GAPS, video information from Street View with the ILIAD sensors information and information sent from radar sensors on the front of the car. The car also has an additional sensor on the rear wheel which locates the vehicles position on the map. Currently, Google is testing seven drivers cars.

Six of the cars are Toyota Presses and one is an Audio TTT ILIAD is an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging. It is similar to radar, but instead of using radio or microwaves it uses light in the form of laser pulses. It can determine distances by measuring the time between when a pulse is sent out and when it is reflected back. One main advantage of ILIAD is the ability to discern and detect smaller objects than radar. It can pinpoint objects that are invisible to radar and also provides much higher resolution than radar which enhances mapping of physical features.

ILIAD has become better known because of Google’s drivers car. But it really is not some futuristic technology that Google has developed. In fact, some cruise control systems are already taking advantage of this technology. These systems use a ILIAD sensor, which is mounted on the bumper. The device measures the distance between the car and any cars in front of it. If the distance is too close the system automatically adjusts its speed downward. You will probably have to wait a while before you can buy a drivers car.

Google’s drivers car is still in the experimental stage. Google has said it has no plans to develop the car commercially at this time. Some of the knowledge and data gained may begin to make its way to auto manufacturers and may start to be implemented. There could be some legal problems with the cars as well. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said that all laws assume a car is human operated and the drivers cars are “ahead of the law in many areas. ” The Figure 1 shows a self-driving car and explains its components.

Figure 1: A sell-driving car SOOT analysts The name says it: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat. A SOOT analysis guides us to identify the positives and negatives inside the technology (S-W) and outside of it, in the external environment (O-T). Developing a full awareness of the technology can help with both strategic planning and decision-making. Strengths * Google/Toyota brand – Google owns one of the most powerful brands in the world, so popular that the company ‘s brand name is used as a verb. Toyota was the first car brand in the world [21-22]. Pioneering drivers technology – self-driving pioneer (Sebastian Thru) * Existing Google Products [13] – Google owns some supporting technologies such as Google map * Financial stability [14] – Google is manically very solid, it generates big cash flows from its online advertising business. Weaknesses * Privacy issues – Drivers Cars may create a thread to personal privacy [17]. In the drivers mode, you immediately start exposing sending great quantities of revealing information. * The lack of credibility – Google isn’t a car manufacture, so it should partner with other car manufactures. Climate constraints [9, 20] – Snow on the road causes the car not to able to stay positioned on the road; the car encounters a change in a road that is not yet reflected in its onboard map. * Lack of wariness of manual instructions – The car drives though construction zones, accident zones, or other situation which a human control is needed. Opportunities * Advertising business – Google has a very valuable and unique asset in online advertising business. Google can expand the advertising business into every Google powered self-driving cars. Revenue from services – Google self-driving technology can help Google integrate Gamma, Chrome, Google Docs and Google Maps into the car services. The company owns an enormous ecosystem of services and applications which offer plenty of opportunities for further growth. Adaptability – Google self- driving technology can be used in any cars technically. Threats * Prone to be hacked [19]: self-driving cars pose new safety risks, because computers are vulnerable to something that human drivers are not hackers. Competitors [8, 11, 12]: * Mercedes: Mercedes-Benz claims it is in the best position to win the race to create the world’s first customer-ready self-driving car. Mercedes’ first self-driving car or ‘autonomous car’ will be available to consumers in 2013 in the all-new S-Class series with a starting price tag of $ASSESS,OOH [16]. * Audio: Audio shows off self- riving, self-parking AY Avian and RSI Sportscast [24]. * Cadillac: Cadillac of the General Motor Company is working over its “super cruise” feature would be a step to * Ionians, Volvo, and BMW: They also have plan to semi-autonomous cars [15]. Provide to self-driving cars [25]. Legal Issues: Rob-cars may face a new threat from lawyers and Union [18, 23]. Figure 2: SOOT analysts Value Proposition “Wheels On Demand – Safe, Economic, Productive” The value proposition statement above says it all. The Google drivers car provides safe, economic and productive transportation to anyone. People who are disabled ND people without a driver’s license can travel using a Google car. Safety We believe that the Google driver-less car will provide safe transportation to customers and save millions from death and injury by reducing traffic accidents. We estimate that the Google car can reduce accidents by 90%.

In fact, we also estimate that the Google car can reduce, wasted commute time and the number of cars on the read by 90%. To put those claims in perspective [27]: About 5. 5 million motor vehicle accidents occurred in 2009 in the U. S. , involving 9. 5 million vehicles. These accidents killed 33,808 people and injured more than 2. Million others, 240,000 of whom had to be hospitalized. Adding up all costs related to accidents-?including medical costs, property damage, loss of productivity, legal costs, travel delays and pain and lost quality of life-?the American Automobile Association studied crash data in the 99 largest U.

S. Urban areas and estimated the total costs to be $299. 5 billion. Adjusting those numbers to cover the entire country suggests annual costs of about $450 billion. Now take 90% off these numbers. We are claiming that the Google car will save almost 30,000 lives each year on U. S. Highways and reverent nearly 2 million additional injuries. We also claim that it can reduce accident-related expenses by at least $400 billion a year in the U. S. Even if we are way off, the improvement in safety will be startling. Economics The economic advantages of owning a Google car or a fleet are plenty.

Following are just a few of the benefits for fleet owners or for businesses operating in the personal transportation segments. 1 . Better use of cars a. Since the cars can drive themselves to the customer, it will be easier to keep them utilized at any given time. 2. Reduced land usage b. For customers that own fleets of cars, while most cars are parked in large parking lots waiting to be driven, a Google car can drive itself to the customer and hence land can be used more economically. 3. Reduced cost per trip c. The Google car can be programmed to operate at the best fuel efficiency.

Since there is no human driver involved, fuel efficiency is guaranteed. D. Billions of dollars saved in fuel costs 4. Wider geographic boundaries e. Some businesses like the Zip Car are limited by accessibility to customers. Owning a fleet of Google cars obliterates this drawback, because Google cars can rive themselves to customers wherever they are. Thus, the geographic footprint can be increased dramatically. Productivity Every trip in a Google car can be a productive one. Business travelers as well as individuals can now do a lot more during a commute.

Following are Just a few examples: * Catch up on e-mails during the commute * Read the Wall Street Journal (or any newspaper/magazine for that matter) * Watch your favorite TV show on Nettling In essence, while the Google car chauffeurs the customer around, they can indulge in any distraction that is considered illegal while driving today. The tolling texture summarizes the value proposition of Google cars. The ‘Solution’ is a solution for our immediate customers I. E. Avis, Hertz and Zipper. On the other hand, the ‘Experience’ is an experience for our secondary customers I. E. People renting cars from Avis, Hertz and Zipper.

Experience Solution Feature Self-driving * No fear of cab drivers * No fear of driving in a strange new city * Improved Productivity * Write E-mails * Watch Movies * Read Newspaper * Phone conversations * Touring Mode * Increased Safety * Increased Fuel Efficiency * Reduced accidents * Reduced number of vehicles Larger geographic footprint * Larger customer base Product Google Car Experience Figure 3: Value proposition pictorial summary Market Analysis Market Demographics In an effort to find the right match of customers, the team decided to analyze and to find states and cities that have the densest population.

Our research determined that Zippers have more rental cars in dense populations unlike cities that have a smaller population. Using a similar model, we are hoping to launch self-driving cars within a dense population so that customers will be more aware of the product and e willing to adapt to this technology. According to the Census Bureau in 2010, five states (California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and New York [46]) were labeled to have the largest populations in the United States. We intend to follow the state laws recently put into place for users to utilize self-driving cars on public roads.

As of September 2012, there are only three states (California, Florida, and Nevada [48]) have passed laws permitting self-driving cars. A law has been proposed in Texas to establish criteria that would allow self-driving cars to be driven on roads [49-50]. Nevada doesn’t have a heavy dense population compared to the other major states as it roughly has a population of over 2. 7 million people [46]. Even though the other two states have nearly over lox the amount of Novena’s population, we don’t want to Just limit ourselves to states that have the heaviest populations.

Great data can be collected from a state that doesn’t have such a large population. At this moment, we will allow Google and Toyota to decide their course of action and which cities and states they choose to launch their vehicle. We are hoping that after phase 1 that there states follow California, Florida, and Nevada (phase 2) and implement their own laws to allow self-driving cars to be driven on their public roads. Market Trends Over the years, car manufacturers have been making automobiles more automated with technologies such as self-parking and adaptive cruise control.

Our focus here is to highlight some of the major semi-autonomous technologies that have reached the early majority on the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) model over the last decade. We are aiming the early majority due to the fact that this group is motivated y evolutionary changes to gain productivity enhancements. The semi-autonomous vehicles that we have identified have become reliable and proven results on the market so much that many car manufacturers have followed each other’s footsteps to implement changes into their own vehicles.

As of 2013, many models only have features that offer narrower functionality as fully autonomous vehicles have not yet been available to the public. These functionalities include: night vision (increases a driver’s perception and seeing distance in darkness), adaptive cruise control automatically adjusts the vehicles to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead), self-parking (assists the driver in the task of parallel parking), and lane guidance (monitors the vehicle’s position in the lane and either warns the driver when the vehicle is leaving its lane, or less commonly, takes corrective actions).

We have constructed a timeline that illustrates how automobiles are becoming more sophisticated over time. Our research indicates that by 2015, Google will have a functional self-driving car that the public can purchase. 2004 2006 Adaptive Cruise Control & Self-parking Night Vision Self-Driving Technology Lane Guidance 2007 2015 2004 Figure 4: Market trends Changing Laws One of the concerns in getting the Google car to market has been that the traffic laws were designed with the assumption that there is a human driver behind the wheel.

With self-driving technology this landscape changes completely. Google has been lobbying in Washington D. C. And at other agencies to modify the laws to promote self-driving. As a result, the U. S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NATHAN) has already announced new policies nickering vehicle automation, including its plans for research on related safety issues and recommendations for states related to the testing, licensing, and regulation of “autonomous” or “self-driving” vehicles [42].

Market Needs After a thoughtful assessment of customer perceptions and expectations, survey questions were created to fully understand the expectations of self-driving cars. Our expectations of the survey include learning about the attributes that customers favor and whether or not those attributes are conclusive with the research already done. The feedback results received from the survey have confirmed our findings that customers desire features of self-driving cars.

For consumers, the features that make self-driving cars valuable include: * Safety * Reliability * Accuracy * price * Ease of use * Accessibility The preferred features weren’t surprising due to the fact that the product is still in the Innovations stage of the TALC model. Safety and reliability were the top most wanted features out of the entire list at 64%. Even though most of the users yearn to have these features in self-driving automobiles, and would like to buy a Google car at some point in the near future, they won’t be early adopters, but more so the early majority.

This means that most people prefer to wait and see if other people are using a product before purchasing or renting it themselves. Many of the people surveyed also want to wait for the price to drop since most users won’t pay more than for the self-driving technology as an add-on package. Conducting this survey has helped us identify key value factors to better understand which features of self-driving automobiles are more important to users. Customer Segmentation Figure 1 below summarizes the plan to break down the Total Addressable Market (TAM) down to the Selected Addressable Market (SAM). Each market segment has a

From today, Google’s new View, a comfortable and easy-to-use virtual reality headset will be available on the Google Store and at retailers across five countries.The small yet powerful headset lets you interact with the virtual world the same way you do in the real world. The company went a step ahead with the cardboard concept, by bringing in  this new phone-powered headset.
It works with Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones but more Android phones will be compatible later this year.What makes it different from other VR devices is the design comprising of a stretchable fabric to make it more comfortable. 

Here are 5 things you need to know about this device before entering the VR world :

Easy To Wear: The Daydream View headset is made with lightweight fabric, inspired by what you wear. Paired with a controller, both are designed to be easy and intuitive.

Inspired By What You Wear: Inspired by the clothes we enjoy wearing, the headset is made with soft, breathable fabric to help you stay comfortable. And just like your clothes, the headset comes in different colors like snow, slate and crimson so you can choose the color that matches your style.

Lightweight Design: The Daydream View headset is lightweight and designed to fit comfortably over most eyeglasses. Plus, it’s removable to wash whenever you like.

Great Content: With Daydream, you can experience some of the most popular Google apps like Google Photos and Google Play Movies in virtual reality. Visit 150 of the world’s most amazing places like the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal with Google Street View.

Smart Sensor Technology: The controller is packed with smart sensors to understand your movements and gestures. And an adjustable volume button lets you turn up your experience.

Which are the daydream ready phones?  Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, Asus and Alcatel

What is the cost of the headset? $79 (USD)

Facebook is getting into the Googling business.

The social network is currently building a search engine that will enable users to look for shareable links within Facebook as opposed to rummaging elsewhere online and then pasting web addresses back into a status update box.

Techcrunch yesterday in the form of a paper clip icon entitled ‘Add a Link’ that started showing up within certain users’ feeds — right next to the buttons where photos, location and friend tags can also be added to statuses. The feature only exists on iOS devices thus far.

Related: AIM planning process

“We’re piloting a new way to add a link that’s been shared on Facebook to your posts and comments,” Facebook told the outlet, adding that it had indexed over one trillion total posts to build the search function. This data is a key differentiator for Facebook’s search function: when users type in keywords, the results are sorted by what is most likely to be shared.

The ‘Add a Link’ feature is just the latest move by Facebook to keep users within its hallowed blue walls. In March, that Facebook was courting media giants including The New York Times, Buzzfeed and National Geographic to publish stories natively on Facebook, as opposed to linking back to their own sites, in exchange for ad revenue.

Google provides numerous free services and products such as Google search, Youth, Google Maps, and has transformed how people use and share information. Google’s business ps from advertising, data analytics, operating systems to technologically advanced devices such as Google Glass, Drivers cars, Solar- powered drones, and was recently named “The World’s Most Valuable Brand” due to consumers perception of Google being a forward-looking company focused on innovation (Bloomberg, 2014).

As of 2013, Google has 43,862 employees working in more than 70 offices in over 40 Mounties around the world with their headquarters located in Mountain View, California, USA. (2014). For the purpose of this study, I will be basing my analysis of Google in Singapore, its Southeast Asia headquarters which opened in 2007. The following sections will analyses the various factors that will influence Google’s operations in Singapore, and conclude with recommendations of how Google should further improve to boost its competitive edge. . 0 PESTLE Analysts Though little political restrictions affect Google’s operations due to the nature of its business, government stability is a major aspect in Google’s strategic planning. Singapore had been rated Sais’s most politically stable country (Brazened, 2013), and Sais’s most competitive economy in the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum (2013).

When the market of operations has political and economic stability, businesses will thrive and in turn advertise more, thus increasing business opportunities for Google. Google was hailed as being “Recession-proof” when they continued to post solid earnings through the economic downturn (Quitter, 2 ) It is well positioned to weather the downturn, as its services are free to consumers, and advertisers bustiest traditional media advertising with online advertising to cut costs. Read also G oogle’s business model relies on which of the following to generate revenue

Regardless, Singapore is widely acknowledged as having one of the best business environments in the world. Ranked as the world’s easiest place to do business (The World Bank Group, 2014) and city with the best investment potential (as cited by Economic Development Board, 2014), Singapore with its sound monetary and fiscal policy attracts many investors. The more investment dollars pour into a business, the more they are willing to spend on advertisements, which increases business opportunities for Google.

In Singapore where there is high internet penetration rate of 87% and mobile penetration rate of 156% (IDA, 2014), consumers comfortable with technology often see the internet as the first source of product research before making their final purchase, making Google a very important part of the process. To increase the number of users accessing Google’s services from their mobile device, Google released its own Android mobile operating system which now holds 55. 8% of the mobile device market share (commerce, 2014). It is thus increasingly important for marketers to influence consumer’s final purchasing decisions by advertising in this pace.

However, Google’s infrastructure created to customize and personalize each user’s search experience by storing their personal information has been received with mixed reactions as some find Google’s sale of such information a violation of their privacy. As people’s attitude and concern towards protecting their private data change, Google’s business may face a threat. Beyond a search engine, Google constantly innovates and develop its wide range of free products aimed at strengthening user engagement. Technology rapidly advances, and Google actively takes measures to ensure they do not fall behind.

According to Bloomberg data, Google has acquired 127 companies in the past three years (as cited by Farad, 2014). Besides buying companies, such as Wage, a GAPS navigation software, and Dammed, an advertising optimization platform, in a smart defensive play to acquire companies that poses a threat to its business, Google has been acquiring a wide range of technological companies from Humanoid robots to Airborne wind turbines to Home automation devices. In a bid to strengthen its business, Google is increasingly moving into developing hardware technology that has a tangible presence in consumer’s homes and offices.

It is estimated that Google runs over a million servers in data centers worldwide, with its first Southeast Asia data centre in Singapore operating since 2013, and consumes a huge amount of electricity. Every time someone makes a search or sends an email, they contributes to the electricity bill at Google’s data centre (Tan, 2014). However, Google argues that they have made the world a greener place considering the electricity consumption for a search in lieu of a drive down to the library.

Above all, unlike other companies, Google builds most of their own data centers down to the energy-saving chips it uses, and custom-designs its servers for efficient energy use (Gland, 2011). Its facility in Singapore uses recycled water for its cooling system. Although Google is a high carbon footprint business, it has adopted a proactive strategy to hold itself up as a ay responsible company by making its facilities environmentally-friendly through generating its own renewable energy from solar panels, wind farms and purchasing carbon offsets by funding green efforts.

From the perspective of law and regulation, the internet is inherently transgressing ND difficult to govern since it is global, and information can be instantly transferred at anytime, anywhere. Google’s products collects a lot of personally identifiable information on its users – Doublethink cookies tracking online footprints, Google wallet storing name, credit card details, and thus how this information is compiled, used or stored are a natural concern.

Google’s data centre in Singapore serves users around the region, and Singapore business-friendly approach with the privacy law on international transfers of data that does not restricts transfers to specific countries on their approved list, but instead puts the onus on the company to put in place measures to ensure personal data is transferred to locations with comparable standard of protection, makes compliance issues less complicated than that of Rupee’s (Bratty, 2013). In general, Singapore is a relatively late adopter of privacy laws (The Register, 2014), and is largely reactive rather than transformation.

As such, legal issues that may arise in Singapore are likely to be those that Google already has measures or policies in place. 3 0 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis Although the internet has traditionally been viewed as a “low barrier to entry’ racetrack, the barriers to entry in the internet search market are high, as it would take a giant step in innovation, and a mammoth starting capital to build a network infrastructure that could compete with all of Google’s services and products. The scale of Google’s businesses has become a significant barrier to entry.

Nevertheless, companies focusing solely on developing a single product or service that Google offers could potentially usurp Google’s dominance in that area, as seen with the Rubicund Project, an advertising start-up which surpassed Google’s Ad Network reach by over 6 million unique visitors (Thomas, 2012). Some of Google’s products and services could potentially be substituted, such as users choosing GAPS instead of Google Maps, but Google’s primary business is their online search engine, which is difficult to substitute. Everyday, an average of 5. Billion Google searches are made (Statistic Brain, 2014). Although there are alternative sources of information such as newspapers, books, television, or radio, the internet is the preferred source for people to retrieve information as it provides information on demand. As of now, the threat of substitution is low as there are no foreseeable substitutions for online search. Google owns its search platform and advertising services tool, thus it has very limited exposure to suppliers. Due to the advertising system used to generate revenue, both the advertiser and search engine user are Google’s customers.

However, websites that have given inventory to Google for sale can be considered their supplier. As websites frequently have their inventory listed across multiple ad exchanges, Google will have to return both quantity of sales and quality of pricing of their buys to maintain the impressions given to them for sale by web publishers. So Eng as Google maintains strong market dominance, supplier bargaining will remain low. Although internet users are tree to switch to alternative platforms, most to products and services that they use are at no cost to them.

Whereas in the case where the buyer is the advertiser, buyer power is low as there are limited vendors they could spend with. A key feature of Google’s ad buying platform, Doublethink, is that advertisers can buy ads on 300 different websites with a few clicks instead of making 300 calls or meetings to get the ads on all the websites. The scale of modern online media buying is staggering as Google provides access to lions of possible sites for advertising. Although Google’s products are not unique, they are at scale, and can make competition difficult for start-up and smaller competitors.

Google is known for being the best search engine with high relevance within its searches, thus its position as the market leader in the search market with about 80% market share (Unguent,2012). Though competitors have caught up, and substitution of Google search in favor of Yahoo or Microsoft’s Being is certainly possible, ‘Goggling has now been ingrained in people’s mind, and is largely a habit instead of being river by significant product differentiation. When Google introduced the Android operating system, they have placed themselves in direct competition with Apple.

Though Android phones currently has larger market share than ISO phones, Apple will not easily give in in the battle of mobile operating systems. Google’s strategy is all about scale and interoperability. With advertising making up over 90% of its total revenue (Google Inc, 2014), it is critical for Google to protect its space, thus its entrance into the browser and mobile operating system market. When one owns the platform, one has the stage. Google tries to own as much of the overall ecosystem as they can so as to lock in its users and keep out competitors.

In doing so, it does not need considerable advertising expense to stay and remain on top. 4. 0 Conclusion ; Recommendations In terms of PESTLE analysis, I recommend that Google venture into new markets around the region. Singapore is a mature market, thus opportunities to grow further are rather limited due to its market saturation and small population. In essence, it is difficult to Justify large advertising spend when it can never attract large reciprocal ales as it simply does not have the population to support it. However, expansion into emerging markets in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia or Philippines will help its revenue growth.

To illustrate, Indonesia has internet penetration at 24% (Satanist, 2014), which translate to 60 million users. That is 12 times Singapore population. The propensity to growth there is phenomenon. In terms of Porter’s Five Forces analysis, I recommend that Google diversify into other ventures that helps generates income as it is not healthy for the company to rely almost entirely on one source of revenue. With its wide range of free products and services, Google could select a few of its products to further develop as alternative revenue sources such as its POI business, or licensing fees for its products.

Google because for me it is a very interesting company and one of the world ‘s biggest and most successful ones. The first thing that everyone comes to mind, hearing the word Google, is search engine. But Google is much more. One of their strengths for example is Android, the operating system for Semaphore’s. It is remarkable what Google reached since 2007, the year of establishment. A weakness I wrote about is the unprofitable products it developed over the years.

Being innovative is not always a warranty for being successful. One opportunity of Google is obtaining of patents by acquisitions. Google did that very well by the acquisition of Motorola. So it got even more competitive in the mobile market. A threat I pointed is that Google has many strong competitors, especially in the mobile market what has a big future and makes it even more necessary to stay competitive. “Don t be evil”, Nowadays it is almost unthinkable that this is the guideline of one of the biggest and most successful companies in this dog-eat-dog society.

We talk about the search engine Google, which was established by Larry Page and Sergey Bring in September 1998 with the name Google Inc. N Menlo Park North, California. (Google Inc. , 2009) It all started in the years 1996 as a scientific project of two guys enthused by computers. Larry Page wanted to analyze the structure of the Worldwide for his doctoral thesis. Together with Sergei Bring he developed a mathematical model which accentuates the meaning of the links – related to the principle that academic texts of a researcher are particularly fundamental, if many other scientists quote them. Search Engine, 2010) But beside the search engine Google is much more. In 2000 Google developed the advertising system Towards which is still the biggest source of income of Google. In 2003 the second important source of income was founded, Decades. It works like Towards do but only on extern web pages. On the 19th of April 2004 Google went public. One big acquisition was buying Youth for $1. 65 billion in 2006. Android, the operation system for phones, was founded in 2007. Google was cooperating with 30 companies under an open handset Alliance. Ads and Android, 2010) In 2012 Google and LAG presented the Nexus 4 phone. Today Google is still the number one search engine, does many acquisitions and always tries to be innovative. This analysis will show up some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Strengths Google has a lot of strengths in their company which has helped them to get one of the most successful companies in the world. But the most productive products are Towards and Decades, almost 99% of Google s revenues are from the advertisement. (Revenue) Towards and Decades are programs that only advertise customer relevant advertisement.

Another secret of Google in doing advertising is that the advertisement is not as dominant as it is for example at the competitors Yahoo and Locos. There are no blinking banners or shrill promotion, the focus is still on the search result what is very customer-friendly. (Advertisement, 2010) This brings Google almost a monopoly in this market which the following graph shows: Market share of the top 5 search engines worldwide: (Statistic Monopoly, 2012) Through this almost monopoly and other open source products and services Google gets the access to the largest group of internet user worldwide.

This brings Google an extremely large market that they can use to promote and sell its products and services. The next strength is the financial situation. Google is one of the most refutable companies with earning nearly $50 billion in revenues which gives them a lot for investments, like acquisitions or for new innovations. (Earning Billion, 2012) For example Google supports being innovative very well by offering 20% of the employees ‘ work time for own ideas and innovations. (Employee) This keeps the innovation-wheel spinning. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCC) Google is the 2nd most innovative business in the world.

Android, the operation system for phones, is the next force. It was founded in 2007 in an Open Handset Alliance with phone manufacturers like ETC, Samsung or some hip manufacturers like Intel and Broadloom. This brought immediately a wide range of customers and that was a reason Android got in 2010 already one third of the phone users and it is still fast growing, up to 74,4 % in 2013 what the next graph, about worldwide Smartened sales, shows: (Android, 2013) This brings Google again a lot of money to invest in further acquisitions and innovations what keeps the money rolling.

Weakness: One of Google’s weaknesses is also her biggest strength, the online advertising. Although online advertising is expected to grow double digits in 2013 and so Google s income will grow in short term but in the long term, Google may slow income growth or even the decline due to few reasons. One point is that the market for personal computers is growing slowly and also the Google experiences overall decline in its desktop search engine market.

So Google needs to push the competition back otherwise it will lose not only the market share but the main source of its income as well. This would mean a huge hole in the checkout. Furthermore there are spammed and made-for-Decades site creators are gaming Google’s system through the practice known as click-fraud. Google said that it has click-fraud under control but it also made some concessions and if Decades customers continue to Another flaw is its unprofitable products it developed over the years.

Some products like Android or Google Chrome needed it’s time to grow, which costs a lot, but now they are running very well. But Google has many products and services that only add little value for the business or only make losses which decrease the profit. Google puts much time in many projects which is expensive and the employees invest a lot of time what makes it even less profitable because they could have plopped new inventions or improved existing ones.

To get a overview how many projects are failing here a list of some: Google+, Google Wave, Google Answers, Google Catalogue, Google Checkout, Google Coupons, Google Video Player, Google Viewer and there are even more. (Google Fail) So Google needs to work in some ways more effective to save time and money. Opportunities: One big opportunity for Google is the obtaining of patents by acquisitions. A good example for this is, when Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12. 5 billion which was its most expensive bought in Google ‘s history.

But it also included 17. 000 patents from the business. Next to Android, Motorola was a big step into the world of mobile internet users. But the main point is the patents that are included in this acquisition. For example in 2011 Microsoft lost a patent dispute against Google in Germany. Out of this Microsoft had to pay compensation and it also has to start a callback of its game console X-Box and of its operating system Windows 7 which damps Microsoft a lot and it is one of the biggest competitors of Google.

So this acquisition brought Google a big advantage. (Google against MS, 2011) Another opportunity is the opportunity for growth, especially in the hardware and phone section. The market is so big and there are still a lot demands which can be satisfied. For example in the second half of 2013 Google wants to launch Google X phone manufactured by its Motorola subsidiary and a new version of its Nexus 7 tablet is also expected around July this year. Google ‘s try is to get more and more involved in the mobile user market with its low price offers.

The same Google does with its Nexus phones. It generates through this launches more people using Android, Google Maps and the app store of Google, the Play Store. Furthermore they reach more people in online advertising which strength Google’s main pillar. Threat: One of Google’s threats are the very big and powerful competitors like Apple, Microsoft, Backbone and Amazon it has to face. Despite the winning of Google against Microsoft in a patent dispute, Microsoft is still a strong competitor.

With Windows 8, an operating system for mobile devices, Microsoft wants to carve out in market share against Android. Of course Apple is also a competitor in the mobile operating system market and it is even stronger represented as Microsoft is. Google is expected to pay an estimated of $1 billion to Apple in 2014 for keeping its search engine as the default on ISO devices because Google makes a huge portion of its mobile revenue from phones and pads.

In 2012 Google paid $417 million to Apple for the exclusive search rights for ISO, up from $82 million in 2009. Another interesting fact is that in March around from Android. Apple is also the biggest competitor in the market of APS. The next graph shows that Google has to catch up and there is still a big potential left. (Google against Apple, 2013): (Google against Apple) Thus far Google has been very successful and it still will, if Google doses ‘t disregard being competitive and innovative in existing and new products.

But the whole online and smart phone market is very fast moving, you always have to be well prepared and there is no time for sleeping or rest on one ‘s laurels. Conclusion In conclusion the SOOT-analysis shows that Google is a very strong company and it stays strong by being innovative and doing acquisitions. It is always attempting to create new markets or improve its already launched products, which is a good strength. But sometimes it is also a weakness because launched products and innovations are too inefficient, through this Google loses much time and money.

So being well prepared is important because the competitors never sleep and especially in fast moving markets like the mobile market. Google has to be careful because often the strengths are also weaknesses what is a thin line. Nowadays you can ‘t afford you too much mistakes, above all big ones. Google will stay successful and competitive if it is always alert, stay true to itself by keeping the search engine and the advertising customer friendly, and being competitive and innovative, which is not easy in total.

Technology giants IBM Corp., Google and seven others have joined hands to launch an open specification that can boost datacenter server performance by up to 10 times, to take on Intel Corp.

The new standard, called Open Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (OpenCAPI), is an open forum to provide a high bandwidth, low latency open interface design specification.

The open interface will help corporate and cloud data centers to speed up big data, machine learning, analytics and other emerging workloads.

The consortium plans to make the OpenCAPI specification available to the public before the end of the year and expects servers and related products based on the new standard in the second half of 2017, it said in a statement.

Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is known to protect its server technologies and has chosen to sit out of the new consortium. In the past also, it had stayed away from prominent open standards technology groups such as CCIX and Gen-Z.

“As artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics become the price of doing business in today’s digital era, huge volumes of data are now the norm,” Doug Balog, general manager for IBM Power, told Reuters.

“It’s clear that today’s datacenters can no longer rely on one company alone to drive innovation,” Balog said.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Mellanox Technologies Ltd., Micron Technology Inc., NVIDIA Corp. and Xilinx Inc. are also members of the OpenCAPI consortium.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Vishaka George in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)