Google Inc Situational Analysis

In the past century, there have not been searching engine companies, and they only came into existence in the late 1990s CITATION Sus111 \l 1033 (Hamen, 2011). The development of internet use and the information strategies that are made available has enhanced a quickly and accurate finding of information. The search engines and search companies have been so critical to webmasters and marketing based on company desires in having their services and products appear at the top of most search sites often used. The techniques employed by a corporation in searching are very confidential. Most search companies receive their search crawler information from Google; Yahoo used this and currently Google AOL search CITATION Gam11 \l 1033 (Gamble, 2011). These companies earn profits in different ways, mainly through advertisement, which is vital for this industry.

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Google, Inc. Background

The company began as a garage company developed in late 1998 by University computer science graduates, Larry page, and Sergey Brin, to a forward thinking company, which employs around 10000 individuals CITATION Mad14 \l 1033 (Latif, et al., 2014). These students met in 1995 started to formulate their searching ideas on searching CITATION Ovi16 \l 1033 (Jurevicius, 2016). They formed Google and presented their methods of searching at a World Wide Web conference. Google became public in 1998 and has since become a new word in the English Language that mean to search for data on the internet using search engines on the internet CITATION Eli13 \l 1033 (Nehls, 2013). Google is seen as a manner in which people can share the worlds data and enable users a fast and easy way of accessing data. Data can be regarded in every form, and they result from the internet, telephone, images, radio, video, and libraries, patent information, national achieves and satellite transmission CITATION Edw13 \l 1033 (Mercer, 2013). The company has since won large scale recommendations and win awards for doing things in the right manner. Google has formed some partnerships with other enterprises, not in its core business area, which is enhanced using search engine algorithms.

Google Inc. Situational Analysis

Google Inc. by any measure is a successful company; it has developed the worlds valuable franchises as the greatest product in the Internet search. Google makes its applications and products work for every segment and allows private and non-profit use to be free. The company has a strong attachment to libraries and education making this part of the culture of the enterprise. Google try challenging the software engineers in diverse areas in discussing high-level technical ideas for the future. The company had a second-quarter revenue, which surpassed the expectations of Wall Street as the largest online search provider globally by capitalizing on the booming growth in video and mobile advertisement at the same time focusing on other businesses CITATION Mad14 \l 1033 (Latif, et al., 2014). It indicated a net income of $4.99 a share from $3.23 billion in 2015 CITATION Mad14 \l 1033 (Latif, et al., 2014). By excluding other expenses and stock-based compensations, the company looks to earn $6.08 a share in 2016, a 20% growth CITATION Mad14 \l 1033 (Latif, et al., 2014). It is projected that the company will account for about a third of ad spending in 2016 with Facebook Inc. being the closest competitor CITATION Ovi16 \l 1033 (Jurevicius, 2016). However, in the in the fast-growing mobile ad business, Twitter and Facebook are more dominant with much growth. The more the global community shift from computers to tablets and smartphones, web-based ad, suffer from low prices and weaker demand. Google does not break the mobile ad revenue, from computer ad revenue. Therefore it is hard to see the manner in which the company handles its difficult shift to tablets and smartphones. Google Inc. continue to spend higher in supporting current businesses and developing new markets, which will drive profit and revenue growth a decade from now.

THE PROBLEMS PRESENTED FOR ANALYSIS

Google Inc. has the most valuable brands and has a leading online ad in the world. However, to continue a successful path and making sense in the market, the company need to address its problems while exploiting opportunities concurrently. Thus, the challenges in business must be addressed. The outrage that surrounds the company presents weakness the search giant faces as it looks to protect and extend its dominance. The major concerns and risks the company is facing are; Googles once-bulletproof brand show some wear and tear, Googles Censorship in China and ethical dilemma to keep up their reputation.

Googles once-bulletproof brand Exterior show some wear and tear.

Google Inc. has reached a point where, despite the promises it makes to its customers and shareholders, it becomes difficult to increase growth that much. Its principal legal obligation needs to be delivering maximum return to its state holders, but since it has reached a central position in the market, it was difficult to remain on the top. Looking at the Microsoft, its once bulletproof brand, its market share slipped by over two-thirds of the browser market in 2015 CITATION Urs16 \l 1033 (Marko, 2016). This went down from a dominant position in 2013. Besides, in the operating systems, the market share of Windows has ever since slipped under 90% CITATION Urs16 \l 1033 (Marko, 2016). This is a big number for such a dominant product as a small slip should be able to raise concern and alarm. It is clear that Microsoft will not be able to increase its market share to 90% again CITATION Urs16 \l 1033 (Marko, 2016). Therefore, for Microsoft success as the largest maker of PC office programs and operating systems, the position of Microsoft as a dominant software provider is at risk.

The Google Inc. Factor

Google Company has inevitably enjoyed chipping away at Microsoft. Through products like Chrome web browser, its dominant web search, a collection of online applications and ad services, it has come to be a company that Microsoft look to be. Seeing Microsoft casting itself as a big bad rigmarole villain, Google Inc. need to be keen in providing alternatives that are viable to make it free of bloat or slime line as possible CITATION Rak14 \l 1033 (Rakauskaite & Zorzi, 2014). The main principle of the company Doesn't Be Evil has today sit in the background. While Google Inc. may not be accused of breaking that principle, cracks are clear in the companys branding, and there is evidence of weakness in the company. This may not bring the company down, but there is a growing indication that the company is faced with serious challenges in maintaining its perception and position in the market.

Size matters

The biggest problem is the size of Google Inc. It has reached a point where it may be accused of being accused of only being dominant in its sector in the market, the same way Microsoft is dominant in its sector in the market CITATION Max10 \l 1033 (Adler, 2010). Like in 2008, reports showed that there were plans for the company to join forces with Yahoo that would see Yahoo using Google's search technology. However, Google pulled out sooner before proper investigations could be carried out CITATION Ann141 \l 1033 (Steiber, 2014). These problems are evident today as Google sits in a well-stocked war chest in the market and find their prices in sales squeeze because of the increased market pressures. Therefore, it has reached a point for Google to select its targets well.

Shares

The companys share price has felt the pinch for a long time. The stock of the company peaked at $757.24 in 2014 and its high points dropped to $602.45 in 2015 CITATION Edw13 \l 1033 (Mercer, 2013). The company share price is also seen to go down in 2016 to approximately half of its peak CITATION Edw13 \l 1033 (Mercer, 2013). There are external factors that have depressed the prices and analysts believe that the company will never have their highest peak figure again. The issue of perception is also another factor. Since Google did not play the branding card as good as the likes of Apple, its antics is far fared than Microsoft. However, such dominance of its ad platform inevitably generates some degree of bad will as users have no choice but to go with it. Besides, the control level that the company has over the web labeled the whole internet as harmful. There is some human error in businesses that go unnoticed, affecting some people who may think of plan B. Thus issue have circled Google Inc. in recent years.

The Search Engine Censorship in China

The conduct of Google Inc. in China has remained less idealistic for years now. The company has lost its market share since it began providing its services in China in 2000 CITATION Kin13 \l 1033 (King, et al., 2013). The content of the internet is heavily censored by the government of China and customers using Google site have undergone inordinate delays. The threat of its operations is majorly the dispute between the government and Google Inc. because of the probability of cyber-attacks in China CITATION Jia14 \l 1033 (Jiang, 2014). To comply with the requirements of Chinas Government, the company agreed its searches be censored. This has ever been one of the primary concern of the company because the China authorities have made Google services inaccessible in currently. In addition to blocking Googles search engines, the company has also blocked Googles products like; Translate, Calendar, and Gmail CITATION Ale13 \l 1033 (Alexander, 2013). China has been involved in Google censorship even before, for example, in 2012, China blocked Google services for 12 hours CITATION Ste151 \l 1033 (Stevens & Peng, 2015). Though the current crackdown is not severe, there is no indication of the number of months or years Google censorship in China would last. This is the biggest attack Google Inc. has ever received in the world. The users of the Internet in China could reach international Google search versions till recently when all Google services, encrypted or not became blocked in the country. This includes the Chinese language versions in Google.com, Google.Hk, Google Australia and others CITATION Kei14 \l 1033 (Mozurkeith, 2014). Other services like Calendar application, Maps service, and the Googles Picasa photo program became inaccessible in 2014 CITATION Nic14 \l 1033 (Lee, 2014), one of the severest censorship ever deployed. Unlike websites of The New York Times, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook that are consistently blocked in China, Google services are disrupted such that out of ten Chinese users, it affects nine of them CITATION Nic14 \l 1033 (Lee, 2014). Through allowing some accessibility, the government of China pin the blame on Google because of its technical problems. Currently, the traffic of Google in China on its services is 50% based on the transparency report of the company CITATION Kav16 \l 1033 (Waddell, 2016). China's Internet users have attested that Google services have had a different degree of interference from 2010, the moment it shut down its internet services in China because of the intrusions by hackers and government censorship in China CITATION Qin08 \l 1033 (He, 2008). Besides, research shows that gaining access to Google services like Gmail is challenging and almost impossible, and search complaints are typically quickly erased in the social media by censors. This means that China has an elaborate censorship and cyber-attack apparatus and cyber spying systems, probably the most sophisticated ones. Google has also lost the market share in China because of Baidu, a local search engine CITATION Chi15 \l 1033 (China Digital Times, 2015). Baidu is the lea...