Google’s competition: Most of the Internet
We all know Google is huge and their wide range of services are bound to have a fair share of competitors, but you may be surprised just how wide-ranging Google considers its competition to be.
Here below we have included a quote from Google’s latest SEC filing with some very interesting information about what Google has to say about its competition.
(SEC filings are public financial documents and contain a wealth of information for those willing to wade through them. For example, much of the information in our Google infographic was extracted from SEC filings. All publicly traded companies are required to file these documents.)
Google’s own words about its competition
So who and what does Google consider to be its competition these days? Here are Google’s very own words, quoted directly from their latest SEC filing. Emphasis added by us:
We face formidable competition in every aspect of our business, particularly from companies that seek to connect people with information on the web and provide them with relevant advertising. We face competition from:
- Traditional search engines, such as Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corporation’s Bing.
- Vertical search engines and e-commerce sites, such as WebMD (for health queries), Kayak (travel queries), Monster.com (job queries), and Amazon.com and eBay (commerce). We compete with these sites because they, like us, are trying to attract users to their web sites to search for product or service information, and some users will navigate directly to those sites rather than go through Google.
- Social networks, such as Facebook, Yelp, or Twitter. Some users are relying more on social networks for product or service referrals, rather than seeking information through traditional search engines.
- Other forms of advertising. We compete against traditional forms of advertising—such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and yellow pages—for ad dollars.
- Mobile applications. As the mobile application ecosystem develops further, users are increasingly accessing e-commerce and other sites through those companies’ stand-alone mobile applications, instead of through search engines.
- Providers of online products and services. We also provide a number of online products and services, including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Docs, that compete directly with new and established companies that offer communication, information, and entertainment services integrated into their products or media properties.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Google competes with most of the internet. Pretty tough competition… Google’s management team must be feeling those gray hairs coming fast.
Data source: Google’s latest SEC filing (form 10-K).
The New England Patriots held what seemed to be a commanding lead (17-15) with five minutes left of Super Bowl XLVI last night. But the New York Giants came back and managed to win with 21-17.
As Super Bowl 46 is approaching, fans will flock to the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, and to TV sets around the world to follow the New York Giants battle it out with the New England Patriots.
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Tom Foremski
March 5th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Those are boiler plate kitchen sink disclosures, everyone puts everyone in as a competitor, helps keep the shareholder lawsuits at bay.
Saad
March 5th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Way to go GOOGLE!!! Keep it UP!!!!
Volume
March 10th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Just why in the world you guys think Google launched Chrome?
Maybe with all remember a browser called Firefox and one of it most famous and popular plugins. Adblocker. How many of Google revenues comes from advertising? Was it 97%? Now imagine most of the browsers with Ad Blockers. Bye, bye Google. They failed miserable in getting revenues from other products and thats why they are testing everything they can. They are in danger. And they will always are going to be, because most other Internet companies see them as a threat now. Google can only be safe if they control the browser (wow, there isnt any ad blocker that works well in chrome, uuu) and even the OS, and even the Internet. They want to own the platform so their revenue is assured. Its a little evil and scary project that Google has going on. If they keep expanding they will kill them selfs because of there are not other competitors like Ebay, Amazon, ja, and even Pingdom, and hosting companies, who in will put ads in Google? You have to be profitable and earn tons of cash for it, and if Google keeps killing other companies with all their free services, they will slowly be killing their own clients that invested money in ads. They will eat their own tale.
Josh Burgbacher
March 11th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I do not believe Google is slowly killing themselves. It is still the most widely used search engine. Google’s revenue mainly comes from PPC and most of the companies or individuals that go the marketing route of PPC are smaller companies that Google has nothing to compete with. I think it is better to categorize Google as a Free internet-service provider of whom which you can buy ad space on their free services.
Essex SEO
May 31st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Well it looks as though Facebook is going to try and take Google on, they have refused to sell out and is still privately owned. The way the internet is going means in the coming years domination will be through a portal that connects people directly, sharing everything and that is fully integrated to every technological gadget especially mobile.
Facebook is laying out its future plans and it looks as though Google might well catch a cold over the next few years…
Jenny
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Google services are Simple…this is where they will win out in the end I think