Google is one of the most well-established technology companies, best known for its online services and products, such as search engine, mobile OS, online ad platform, maps, cloud services, video sharing platform, and many more. Currently, Google holds a staggeringly high market share in the search engine and mobile OS market. In the search engine sector Google has captured more than 86% market share, followed by Bing at 6.43% and Yahoo at 2.84%. In case of the mobile OS sector, the company also holds the leading position with 88% market share, followed by iOS at 11.9%. The success of the company is clearly reflected in its revenue generation, which as of 2019, was recorded to be USD 160.74billion, which is a significant increase from USD 65.67 billion, from five years ago. According to our essay writing service, Google is one of the most commonly studied global organization among business students. In article we have conducted an in-depth SWOT analysis of Google, encompassing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Furthermore, you may use this as a reference to write your paper on this topic or you can use it as an example to learn more about SWOT analysis.
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The key strength of Google lies in its brand image and brand value. Google is well-known for its constant innovation and new technological development which can have far reaching impacts on the community. As of 2020, the brand valuation of Google was recorded at 323.6 billion which is a sharp increase over the previous years. This highlights the massive popularity of the company among its stakeholders and its strong brand equity.
The financial position of Google is another key strength of the company. Over the past years, the revenue of Google has increased significantly, and has been forecasted to increase further in the foreseeable future. The strong financials of the company allow it delve in new ventures thereby further expanding its business and its sources of cashflow. Moreover, it also brings more return for the shareholders and convinces them to invest more on the company. Over the past five years, Google has shown a steady increase in shareholders equity, which in 2020 has been recorded to be over USD 207 billion.
Google has a highly diversified business venture. The company started its business as a search engine and online ads platform, and has expanded to become a technology giant, which caters in multiple industries. At present, Google operates in various technology sectors such as search engine, cloud computing, mobile OS, smartphone devices, video sharing platform, among many others. Diversification into multiple product and service categories has enabled the company to further increase its revenue generation and to reduce its financial risks.
Finally, it should be highlighted that Google’s strength also lies in its robust human capital and technological know-how. The company invests significantly in developing new technologies and design patents which can strengthen its competitive advantage in the market. Moreover, the company operates with a massive employee strength of 118,899 full-time employees, enables the firm to seamlessly run its global operations.
Being one of the largest technology firms with an ever-increasing revenue generation, Google has ensured that it has covered all of its weaknesses. However, despite its efforts it still has some key weaknesses in its business operations. The primary source of income comes from ad revenues from Google Ads and Ad Sense, which are largely dependent on the accumulation of user data. Google, over the recent years, has faced a lot of backlash involving user privacy and misusing of personal data to make money.
Google has also been the center of controversies on the grounds of the anti-trust law. Since, Google is thebiggest search engine service provider with more than 86% market share, it has been alleged to practically control the industry in its own favor. It has also been argued that the company has systematically prevented other players from growing in the market, while using its financial prowess to dominate the industry.
Google has a very poor reputation with its entry into the social media sector, with its own platform called Google Plus. The company failed to understand the needs and preferences of the users, who gave their preference towards Facebook.
The company has been often questioned by government bodies for their controversial search results with potential political implications. Since, the search results are refined by system algorithms, it becomes very challenging for the company to moderate the results. Identical issues were also faced by Google, regarding some controversial content on its video sharing platform, YouTube. Major companies like Verizon, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson had decided to boycott YouTube as their advertising platform as their ads were found to be running alongside of hate-filled content. The lack of sufficient human moderation of the content can be cited as a concerning weakness for Google.
The global internet usage statistics shows an ever-increasingtrend, especially in the Asian market. This acts as a potential opportunity for Google foster business growth in by offering its ad services to more clients, who now can benefit from the increased internet penetration. Moreover, the rising internet usage can also increase the popularity of all the internet-based services offered by Google, thereby increasing its revenue generation.
Google has the opportunity to excel in driverless transportation. The company has been testing its driverless cars for quite some time and it has proven to be quite beneficial. The rising popularity of the online ride hailing services, can present the opportunity to expand in that sector through the introduction of driverless transportation.
Gaming as a service can also be a good opportunity for Google. Since, the company already has a robust infrastructure for cloud computing, it can make dominant position in the market. Cloud gaming has already become a popular concept with more and more technology companies investing in it. This can be a golden opportunity for Google to enter the gaming as a service industry.
The wearable device market has shown promising growth in the recent years, and has been forecasted to grow further in the near future. Google can delve deeper into this product category by introducing a range of different wearable devices, especially targeted at improving productivity and health tracking.
Google faces significant threat in certain sectors, especially in the cloud computing and smartphone industries. The presence of steep competition in these sectors have made it quite difficult for the company to increase its market share. Even though Google is a diversified company, the majority of its revenue still comes from the advertisements. This as a result, makes the company dependent on one source of cashflow.
Being an international company, Google can face the threat of sudden operational disruption due to changes in governmental policies and business regulations in the host market. The case of Google’s ban in China can be pertinent example, where changes in policies prevented Google from operating in that region.
Google has faced anti-trust controversies in several markets where the company has been found to use unfair marketing strategy push its own products and services, without giving other players the chance to compete. The EU had placed fine of USD 5 billion on Google for illegally bundling its own applications with its operating system.
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