Why 2015 Could Be A Disastrous Year For Google!

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Just when you thought the giant can’t get any bigger, catastrophe strikes Google Inc at the worst possible time. Being as successful as Google does raise an eyebrow. In ancient computing times, Microsoft was the big bad evil empire that the then incepted Google and Apple wanted to overtake. Hence Apple always backed Google. Steve Jobs took it as his responsibility to mentor Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. There were also times when Google CEO Eric Schmidt was welcome in Apple’s board.

A decade has passed by since and the tables have turned against today’s most common enemy- Google. Competition from it’s homeland is fierce with Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple all teaming up with each other through implicit partnerships. Times where it monopolized the internet space is no longer the reality for Google. The Company has many issues to address besides keeping an unwary eye on it’s rival tie ups.

Google Logo

Google’s Many Speed Breakers

1.) The major concern Google has to address is “the transition from desktop to mobile search, continued margin compression, and increasing competition from Facebook”.

The camaraderie between Facebook, Apple and Microsoft is the biggest cause of concern for Google. Microsoft invested $240 million in FB way back in 2007. Apple’s iOS is a steady platform for garnering FB as FB generates quite a lot of revenue.

2.) Apple’s Siri is powered by Microsoft. Day by day, Microsoft seems to be updating it’s resources to answer the next gen’s queries and is way ahead of Google with it’s speed of innovation to power Siri. Facebook bought Atlas, the ad-serving platform for peanuts from Microsoft. With Apple deeply integrating iOS for FB compatibility, Atlas has been putting up immense competition to Adsense.

3.) With the rise in mobile browsing, Google’s search advertising revenue has hit rock bottom with most mobile users not using web as much as they used to, on their desktops. The last few quarters saw Google search advertising business grow at a snail’s pace, which is the lowest in 6 years.

4.) When it comes to rivals, Eric Schmidt confessed in a conference in Berlin, “Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon.”

Google is hit badly here because when people want to buy something on the internet, Google displays the ads for them, that in turn has been a major source of revenue to Google. However now, people are directly going to Amazon to buy products.

5.) Another bummer is that this income generating department of Google was headed by Nikesh Arora, who has now quit Google for a CEO position at Softbank Internet and Media. Arora was the highest paid executive with $51.1 million. Omid Kordestani has now replaced him. This is a setback because, Arora having lead Google’s advertising search and had been managing the customer revenue and marketing for 10 years now. Looks like Schmidt is disguising his disappointment with the hope that Omid will outperform Arora.

6.) In a sudden unexpected turn of events. Schmidt appointed Sunder Pichai to take over the day to day operations at Google. Many sources say that the innovation pace of Google is suffering due to which the appointment of Pichai happened in a hush hush manner.

7.) Also with EU vowing to break up Google as it is privy to a humongous database, is surely taking a toll on it’s revenue in the Europe. Google is battling for it’s survival in Russia, Italy, Brazil and Spain. Most of Europe are turning to Mozilla for search engine and the EU views Google as a parasitic American company that is creating many barriers for small competitors to co-exist and want to curb it’s operations.

8.) It seems like Facebook will never rest till it is a step ahead of Google. Facebook is in process of bringing in YouTube like videos, known that the FB base is ever expanding. It is also working on video ads. This is a battle, many feel FB might win. An expert says, “Facebook appears better positioned to capture new dollars coming online given its 21% share of mobile time spent, strong leverage to news feed ads, and nascent opportunities in video and Instagram.”

9.) Apple had signed a contract, with Google for providing a search engine on it’s safari browser expires this 2015. Also Apple is rumored to be building it’s own search engine but however this June, Apple changed it’s default search engine on the iPhone and iMac to Bing. The fight now is between Yahoo and Bing to get a piece of the cake.

10.) Also Google has been the last of the tech lot to buy mobile patents from Nortel, and forced itself to buy Motorola at $12 billion and sold the same at $2.9 billion. Google has been having problems in finding good mobile app partners.

Amidst all the spheres of pessimism, Eric still wears a smile. A former Google says, “Mobile has been eating away [at them] for years, but they’ve been able to pull rabbits out of the hat to increase revenue. I think 2015 is going to be disastrous.”

However we hope our accustomed giant gets out of all this mess without messing with it’s brand image!

Do let us know what you think in comments below!

[Via: Business Insider]

13 Comments
  1. Vishal says

    You have not mentioned any sources.. This forecast is completely false premise. Google shares does not depicts what is said above.
    If you rewrite/use someone else work then it is good to give credits.. this article is taken from http://www.businessinsider.in/Google-Is-Going-Through-A-Rough-Transition-And-Theres-Some-Pessimism-Inside-The-Company/articleshow/45540731.cms

    1. Vaishnavi says

      Hey Vishal,

      As a matter of fact, this article has been inspired from the link you just specified, so you’ve got your sources and pls do share the same with Mr Anonymous.
      At the risk of making it more personally driven, felt it better to stick with what the industry experts feel.
      Thanks again

  2. Vaishnavi says

    Hey guys,

    Thanks all for posting your comments. And yes..we can live without Google, but life would be extremely difficult. But sure Google guys also can’t live without us hence they’ve devoted their lives by giving us some of the amazing internet products, so as author, I can’t always report about the rosy side. So given the love for Google, pls don’t take it out personally on me! It’s only a forecast!

    Thanks!
    Vaishnavi

  3. […] may well me one of the most disastrous years for Online Giant Google. With Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon all ganging up against it, they are in some real troubled […]

  4. Anonymous says

    In point 9. it says competition for default search engine for Apple’s Safari Browser in 2015 is between Yahoo and Bing.. please tell the author of this post to look at Wikipedia post about Bing… where they will come to know that Yahoo runs a customized/branded version of BING. So yahoo search is not at in any search competition in point 9.

    1. Vaishnavi says

      Dear Anonymous,

      Thanks for taking time to express your comment. Being an avid Google user and admirer, I’m pro Google any day. Infact to prove the same, i’ve also written a post about how we can’t live without google.
      Link: https://trak.in/tags/business/2014/09/25/google-products-taking-over/
      There are however a few red flags for Google and from various sources, this information in point 9 was to be considered. As an author, I can’t be biased and need to come out with what the sources point to. So I think you’ll excuse me for doing my job!

      Author

      1. Anonymous says

        First of all I am not playing a blame-game here. I pointed out a mistake that needs to be corrected. So just go out and review it and correct it. Thats the only solution.

        You said about sources, etc without telling the name/links to those sources. Please tell the sources or whoever thinks they are google pro to give a proof that Yahoo search does not run on Bing in the year 2015. Salary should be deducted for giving misinformation.

        Read these 2 links to come to know the truth about what Yahoo search runs on Bing in 2015 or not:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Search
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing

        You have also diverted the topic. Just go and correct point 9 and remove Yahoo from the search competition, else there will be a day when you will write an article that Sify which runs Google search is in competition with Google search and point out at some sources.

        Its never too late to start. You can even correct the article now. It is not too much that I am asking for.

        Thank You

        1. Vaishnavi says

          Hey anonymous,

          Nice to hear back from you. I’d really appreciate if you’d understand that just because you feel strongly about something shouldn’t condemn others view. It’s just a view and as I said earlier, I’m just writing to give the facts. Let’s leave it here. But anyways thanks for commenting.

          Vaishnavi

  5. Chandra says

    Google is there from years don’t think any one can replace google.

  6. Srihari Thalla says

    Regarding the Motorola-episode, Vaishnavi, you have forgotten about the invaluable patents that the Google has kept with itself and only sold-off the Motorola hardware business to Lenovo. These patents were licensed to Lenovo for the Motorola branded mobiles thereafter!

    May be, and thus, Google is not looking for a mobile partner, rather it is looking at means to protect it’s Android from competitors and their lawsuits?!

  7. Vishal says

    Google is and always will be leader in Search and Adverts. Anyone who have used Google products are never going to shift to another provider.. Google only name is enough..

  8. Malick says

    Quite difficult to agree. Google search, Gmail, Youtube, Android etc., are still leaders in their own segments. There is no threatening player emerging in digital ad space. The number of Android phones sold, used are high in volume and continue to be so. So, expecting something to happen in 2015 is too much. For long years, yes. For that matter future may be difficult for all majors: Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Oracle, – Google included. Some of the points listed looks trivial to me. /Malick

  9. Prashanta says

    Google would always be widely used because :
    FB ltself is badly affected by whatsapp – 20% of the people have moved to whatsapp. That means ppl stopped looking to web browsing in FB. Slowly that would go off.

    Bing is the worst search engine we have ever seen. Microsoft has to develop it’s DB first.

    GOOGLE has worked on it’s chromecast to ensure that people are using it’s browser.
    When it comes to keep multiple browser in windows – no one would prefer to keep multiple, as already IE and chrome would be there in the system.

    Google always goes one step ahead of microsoft and apple.

    In market there would have been a best combination NOKIA mobile with latest android OS.

    The time NOKIA took the decision to go to Microsoft, from that time NOKIA lost it’s complete market.

    More over apple never deserve to sell it’s product with high cost.
    Price for all apple products has to come down.

    Who knows, plan getting sett by Microsft, apple , amazon and FB may harm them in their base product.

    Let’s keep finger crossed.

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