Google Case Study

SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis is used to strategically plan and identify a company?s internal strengths and weaknesses and the external environment that creates opportunities and threats. Company?s use their external opportunities to reinforce internal strengths and improve internal weaknesses in an attempt to achieve organization goals. The internal factors of strengths and weaknesses are measured by its impact on the goals and objectives of the organization. A company's strengths are its resources and any other developments that can create a competitive advantage. Some of the internal factors are part of the marketing mix - product, price, plan, and promotion. The non existence of specific strengths may also be categorized as a weakness. The external factors of opportunities and threats present themselves from the external environment. Some external factors are new technology, change in regulations, and competing products and firms. A matrix is usually used to express the results of the analysis (David). Strengths ? Simple design and level of ease ? Patent for ranking tool ? Revenue from advertising programs ? 2007 Fortune #1 Best company to work for list Weaknesses ? Google's tendency to solve engineering problems instead of user problems ? Google's contextual ads continuously targeted by click fraud ? Google's failed efforts offline Opportunities ? Advertising partnership with Yahoo ? Experimental partnerships with radio and print media ? Acquisitions of businesses (YouTube, DoubleClick) ? Other partnerships (AOL Time Warner, NASA, News. Corp.) ? Increase in online advertising ? Online video increasing ? Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them ? 1,300 r鳵m鳠a day ? Froogle.com / Google Product Search Threats ? Potential Yahoo/Microsoft alliance ? Facebook ? Click fraud ? Copyright disputes stemming from Google Book Search and the digitization of millions of books

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Appendix External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFEM) KEY EXTERNAL FACTORS Weight Rating Weighted Score Opportunities Growth In Internet Usage 0.07 4 0.28 Online Ad Spending in the U.S. 0.05 3 0.15 Growth in Online Video 0.07 2 0.14 Becoming part of phone industry 0.06 3 0.18 Become part of health industry 0.02 2 0.04 Rapid Growth 0.09 4 0.36 Threats Competition from Microsoft and Yahoo 0.08 4 0.32 Click Fraud and Invalid Clicks 0.07 3 0.21 Data Scam 0.05 3 0.15 Competition from Diverse Internet Companies 0.07 3 0.21 Continuous Innovation in order to remain competitive 0.07 4 0.28 loss of advertisers 0.05 4 0.2 loss of Google network members 0.05 2 0.1 intellectual property rights claims 0.05 2 0.1 acquisitions 0.07 3 0.21 privacy concerns 0.08 4 0.32 TOTAL 1 3.25 Competitive Profile Matrix for Google Inc. (2007) Google Microsoft Yahoo Baidu Critical Success Factors Weight Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score Strong Brand Recognition 0.15 4 0.60 4 0.60 4 0.60 3 0.45 Talented Employee Base 0.10 4 0.40 3 0.30 3 0.30 3 0.30 Culture of Innovation/ Accountability 0.10 4 0.40 4 0.40 2 0.20 2 0.20 Advertising 0.15 4 0.60 3 0.45 3 0.45 1 0.15 International Markets 0.20 2 0.40 3 0.60 4 0.80 3 0.60 Powerful Business Relationships 0.05 3 0.15 4 0.20 3 0.15 3 0.15 Customer Loyalty 0.15 4 0.60 3 0.45 4 0.60 4 0.60 Market Share 0.10 4 0.40 2 0.20 3 0.30 2 0.20 Total 1 3.55 3.2 3.4 2.65 IFEM KEY INTERNAL FACTORS WT SCORE WEIGHT RATING Strengths Provided free of charge .1 4 .4 Easy to use and understand .08 3 .24 Fast .07 3 .21 Practical .05 3 .15 Reliable .09 4 .36 Unlimited information available .05 3 .15 Searching .09 4 .46 Development of open source internet .08 3 .24 Services Very large in size .06 3 .18 Weaknesses Financial Data .08 2 .16 Limited Search Features .06 2 .12 Link searches must be exact .07 2 .14 Searches for grammatical variants .04 1 .04 without letting the user know Data is not sorted by newest dates .08 2 .16 TOTAL 1 3.01 Life of a Google Query The search results are returned to the user in a fraction of a second. 1. The web server sends the query to the index servers. The content inside the index servers is similar to the index in the back of a book - it tells which pages contain the words that match the query. The query travels to the doc servers, which actually retrieve the stored documents. Snippets are generated to describe each search result. (Google) Google?s Income Statement and Balance Sheet