Google, search forward

Google's position as the top search engine on the Internet means that the challenge it faces will be even more severe—how to maintain its advantages without losing its power.

In the opinion of Google founders Page and Brin, in order to keep the existing state, they should adopt a strategy of attacking and defending, and strengthen expansion through their own technological advantages. Google is perfecting the language translation function on its search service; has acquired the Deja.com website to enter the newsgroup search area; and expands the search function to PDF documents and images. With the original directory, phone book, map query and other services, Google is looking more and more like a portal website.

And Google's overseas expansion has long gone beyond the technical level. In addition to the high-profile Chinese search service, Google's UK, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Japan and South Korea sites have also quietly opened.

To support offense and expansion, maximizing revenue is Google's primary goal. Google recently announced the launch of a free, ad-supported Gmail service that could greatly expand its reach. In addition, Google has made plans to go public, with a conservative estimate of $12 billion in financing.

However, Google will have to face some very important issues as the business gets stronger. First of all, the difficulty of balancing is getting bigger and bigger, as Brin said, "Our functions are increasing day by day, but we can't show it on the home page". Second, Google's success as a search engine has posed a competitive threat to its corporate customers, affecting their advertising revenue. A few months ago, Yahoo ended its alliance with Google, spent more than $2 billion to acquire two search engine companies, and is preparing to launch its own search technology. The battle between companies for ad revenue is bound to intensify as the internet advertising market is sluggish. Finally, if Google goes public, it will also put itself under pressure from investors to maximize revenue.

Google will also face pressure from within. With his status as the largest investor, Schmidt became CEO of Google. "The company has no structure to speak of," Schmidt said shortly after taking office. He believes that the urgent task is to standardize the company's revenue expectations, train the company's management, and establish a more complete management information system. He has said that when he first met Google's founders, "they didn't agree with me in every way."

The question facing Google is not just whether to maintain a consistent and simple style, but whether it can avoid repeating the mistakes of its predecessors who have died before, and make the right choice to enter its middle age with ease and fullness . Dear readers, what are your thoughts and suggestions on this?

● Case study

How does Google combine its glorious past with the future of business, which is a strategic level issue. Users of the CEConline website analyzed Google's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and made recommendations for its future direction, including strategy, management, and tactics.

Technical advantages, management weaknesses, market and capital expansion can be expected

Advantages Google has a powerful search function, and its simplicity first purpose has won the recognition of users. Dongguan's "Li Mingju" believes that Google's practice of pursuing a single home page interface is a strong means of personalization or differentiation. In the Internet world full of messy advertisements and dazzling colors, its concise pages are like a quiet harbor. A bank's "rainforest tea" also believes that the power of simplicity is on full display in Google. It accurately captures people's most fundamental need - retrieving information, with 60 million Internet users, and its pay-per-click method based on user retrieval content has attracted a large number of advertisers.

Disadvantages Nanjing Southeast University's "Baodan" believes that management is Google's biggest weakness. He said: "Brin and Page, these two technical geniuses, while applying their technology to bring huge growth to the company, they also make the company an idealistic disorganized body, they are more like a pursuit of individual dreams. It is not a company that aims to make a profit.” In addition, the new CEO and the founder also have different views on the business development of the company, which has become a major hidden danger in the development of the company. Google's global expansion will make its management weaknesses more prominent.

Opportunities Once Google goes public, more capital will allow it to better develop technology and markets. At the same time, Google's overseas expansion policy has made it possible to break through the corner of the United States, and it is possible to build a search engine empire all over the world, which will have better performance both in terms of popularity and finance.

Threats First, there are growing threats from competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo.

Second, Google's global expansion front is too long, making it less than satisfactory abroad.

Once again, Google's battle for advertisers with portals has intensified, while losing it to corporate customers like Yahoo.

Finally, Google's upcoming listing makes it face the pressure from investors to maximize the interests, and the requirements for corporate governance and financial statements are bound to be higher.

Analyzing Google's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will help you better understand its current state and future development.

Adhere to core advantages and change technology orientation to customer orientation

In terms of strategy, "Mr. Zhang Ming" pointed out three core advantages required for enterprise growth: the core concept, for Google, is to provide users with excellent Network services; core products, a powerful search function for Google; core team, Google must have leaders who are passionate about the network and understand market strategies, rather than pure technical masters. He believes that on the one hand, Google must maintain its technological advantages, and on the other hand, it must explore market potential, achieve stable finances, and avoid the tragedy of the technology giant's market dwarf.

"Dragon Bamboo" believes that Google does not have a clear strategic goal to guide the effective integration and rational allocation of resources. Google should change from technology-oriented to customer-oriented (including partners and final customers), and formulate strategic goals and specific plans on this basis. He believes that this strategic transformation should be gradual.

As a soon-to-be-listed company, Google's profitability will directly affect investor confidence, which in turn affects the company's ability to raise funds. But in the change of profit model, Google should be cautious. "Smoke Wave Tail" believes that Google needs to continue to meet user needs in terms of search technology and concise style, and sacrifice the style recognized by users to pursue profit will be quenching thirst.

Change the organizational structure to synchronize management with strategy

In terms of management, "Baodan" believes that Google's top priority is to transform the inherently idealistic corporate temperament of Internet companies and create a more practical corporate model and thinking , to establish a clear corporate strategy, a reasonable corporate structure, an effective corporate management system and a powerful corporate operating mechanism. "Yixiaotian" of a financial management company suggested establishing a flexible and fast flat organizational structure.

"waifpenny" suggested that Schmidt completely free Google founders Page and Brin from the burden of management. He believes that the two should focus on the core advantage - the research and development of new technologies. If too much time is spent on management, the introduction of new technologies will slow down, and their original competitive advantages will gradually disappear, thereby gradually losing the market. Schmidt himself should focus on standardizing the company's revenue expectations before listing, cultivating the company's management, and establishing a more complete management information system.

At the same time, there must be close communication between Schmidt and the founders to ensure mutual agreement on company strategy to maximize synergy in a direction that is beneficial to the company.

Provide value-added services and expand the leading edge of technology and market

In the search engine industry surrounded by competitors and changing technology, the support of network users is the cornerstone of success. Therefore, providing users with value-added services has become the preferred winning strategy for enterprises.

"Liao Zhuangjia" believes that Google should not ignore or change the concise style and advantages of the website in order to meet the requirements of advertisers, but should focus on providing better services for users. On the one hand, by improving the service level to adjust the tariff income, reduce the dependence on advertising, and form a development driving force that takes the lead in technology and service.

"Chen Weiming 03" from a consulting firm believes that the huge Internet population is undoubtedly the source of Google's potential customers and huge revenue. He suggested that Google establish a mechanism for verifying the credibility of buyers and sellers of information. In this mechanism, people with special information resources can send information to Google for "consignment", and those who need information can also publish information on Google according to certain rules. A demand notice indicating the price cap that can be paid and the quality requirements.

"E MING" proposes to set up a separate portal in parallel under Google's banner to take advantage of Google's advantages without violating the purpose of simplicity. GM's "bjsm" proposes to refine the existing services, that is, to divide different areas according to different industries and fields, so that the required information can be quickly searched.

In addition to providing value-added services, "waifpenny" proposed that additional investment should be made to customers to enhance technological leadership and expand market share. He believes that further investment will allow Google to continue to be the technology leader in the market, enabling it to rapidly expand its strength and attract investors' attention in the fiercely competitive Internet market.