How did Google succeed in building a worldwide brand from nothing, in just a handful of ye
Which is the secret of Google unconventional business model?
How was Google able to reach a capitalization of over $350 billion,
with such limited results in terms of revenues and profits?
How was Google able to win out all its competitors - Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista,
Excite, Infoseek - in the years between 1998-2001,
when Google was a young, small company with just 20 employees?
Was it just thanks to an algorithm?
Or did Google succeed due to the essential user interface,
a completely different choice from the cluttered interfaces of its competitors?
or something else?
Analysis
Google Inc. was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.
In 2001 was the #1 Search Engines.
In just 3 years, from scratch, as a start-up, Google attained the world
leadership in the Search Engines market,
And in the following years - from 2002 to 2013 - Google strenghtened its
leadership position,
becoming - as a matter of fact - the undiscussed world dominator in Search
Engines.
Search Engine is the key asset in the online world.
But Google today is not just the #1 search engine.
Google Market Capitalization
In 2013 Google Inc. is the 3rd biggest US corporation, considering stock
market capitalization, with $350 billion.
By comparison, in December 2013: Yahoo stock market capitalization was $40
billion,
Microsoft $320 billion,
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opportunity.
A lucrative opportunity.
Google Winning Concept
First, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a totally new algorithm, capable
of filtering
down the deceiving SEO webmasters tricks, and giving more relevant and
interesting
results to the user.
They called it "PageRank", and while its general working is known, the exact
formulas are still secret today.
Second, they decided to have a simple, clear, minimalist, essential home
page - user interface, if you prefer: Just the Google logo, and the search box.
Thus, the Google home page, even at very low connection speeds, was much
quicker to load
than any competitor's.
These two were the winning ingredients to Google lighting fast growth and
overwhelming success.
Thus, when Google started and entered the market, the situation was the
following:
Google had a clean, clear, essential user interface. no frills, no annoying
banners,
just the logo and the search box - and was easy to use and fast to load.
All main Google competitors - Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, Excite, Infoseek - were
more like generalistic portals, full of confusion, full of useless features and
useless links,
full of annoying banner ads, heavy and slow to load, and confusing and
annoying to the eye.
Google had a clear understanding on psychology of perception, and how the
interaction eye/brain works, while the bigger competitors didn't.
Bottom line is: If the user goes to a search engine, what he/she wants to get is
simply that: just a search engine. A search engine which is fast and reliable.
If the user wants a generalistic portal, he/she goes to a portal, not to a search
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engine.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google Executives, understood this, and this
was
what they delivered.
And made their users happy.
And the other key point - in the years from 1998 to 2001 - Google had reliable
search results
(not always, but most of the time). Page and Brin's Page Rank algorithm
worked well.
As part of the winning mix, it has to be pointed out also that the Google Inc.
start-up was
well financed and well advised by their Venture Capital companies, Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, especially by John Doerr, VC
Partner of Kleiner Perkins, and his advisors, and assisted by Wilson Sonsini
Goodrich & Rosati, the leading law firm of Silicon Valley.
But this was just the start, the first, crucial years, from 1998 - when Larry
Page and Sergey Brin founded Google - and 2001, when Google won the
search engines fiery war.
The following years - from 2002 to today - have been exciting and successful
as well for Google.
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