Google Case

SWOT Analysis (appendix 6)

Strengths:

Ÿ Trusted brand name-little need for self marketing

Ÿ Reliable and fast search results

Ÿ Simple interface

Ÿ Has a $189 billion market value

Ÿ Has a 65.6% share of all US searches and 90% share in other countries

Ÿ Geographical targeting system allows Google to attract local advertisers

Ÿ Searches yielded paid-listing click-throughs twice as often as Yahoo in 2005

Ÿ Offers advertisers more search traffic and lower minimum Cost Per Click bids

Ÿ Strong executive team focused on promoting a culture, which supports mission of “making all of the World’s information accessible and usable” per CEO George Schmidt

Ÿ Growth potential in many areas

Ÿ Android platform for mobile phones

Weaknesses:

Ÿ Estimates that between 10%-50% of all paid-listing click-throughs are fraudulent lead advertisers worried and angry

Ÿ Multiple litigations related to trademarks, use of information without permission and privacy issues

Ÿ Spreading too thin, branching in many different ways

Ÿ Being monitored closely by the US Department of Justice due to what Christine Varney assistant attorney general stated was a “monopoly in Internet online advertising”

Opportunities:

Ÿ Use Chrome as a full portal

Ÿ Create an operating system

Ÿ Push forward into the transaction sector and challenge Amazon.com and Ebay.com

Ÿ Expand in the documents sector and challenge Microsoft

Ÿ Continue to advance search queries to eliminate errors in search results

Ÿ Continue to advance in the mobile phone sector by increasing applications to facilitate checkout, directions, search related to mobile needs (hotels, food, etc)

Threats:

Ÿ Being spread too thin leaves Google open to missing the “new innovation” or technology that changes the game for everyone

Ÿ Governmental regulation due to Google’s size

Ÿ Competitors such as Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo!, etc teaming up

Ÿ Hackers

Ÿ Privacy restrictions