introduction :-
In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin began Google as a search engine project while students in the Ph.D. program at Stanford University. It has gone from being a school project to one of the world’s most dominant technology companies. Google began with a stated mission of “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google diversified its enterprise into many aspects of the digital economy – are Google accounts that tie ads, cloud computing, cellular devices and behavior, data mining and artificial intelligence, facilitating commerce, and enhancing virtual reality experiences. The following report discusses the key phases in Google’s development, including early evolution, monetization, and key business choices that shifted a school project into a global technology powerhouse.
Early Investment, Rapid Growth, and a 2004 IPO :-
Google, in its infancy, started to take off because of the PageRank algorithm, which gave users better search results than competing search engines. Google’s results were really good, and it quickly garnered attention with this quality, leading to some early investment. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Google a $100,000 check in 1998, even before Google was incorporated. Shortly thereafter, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins venture capital firms would invest $25 million, allowing Google to really ramp up.
By 2001 Eric Schmidt had been hired to be CEO because he was an executive who could manage the company and allow Page and Brin to innovate. Google continued to introduce key products like Google AdWords, which was the beginning of its revenue model. Because of all this strong growth, and an early user base, Google made its highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in August 2004. Google raised $1.67 billion at its IPO for a market capitalization of over $23 billion. The IPO represented a major transition for Google from disruptor-startup to technology juggernaut.
Strategic Acquisitions and Monetizing Google’s Search Engine:-
Google’s rapid growth also accelerated with its series of acquisitions that helped expand the company’s technological offerings and market reach. The acquisition of Applied Semantics, in 2003, was one of its most notable early acquisitions because Applied Semantics provided the backbone for what became AdSense, Google’s contextual advertising service that complemented AdWords. Over the following years, Google acquired YouTube (2006), DoubleClick (2007) and Android Inc. (2005), all of which bolstered Google’s presence in video content, advertising technology and mobile computing.
Google’s ad model was its key revenue generator in the coming years, allowing advertisers to target a specific user based on search intent to provide highly targeted ads. AdWords plus AdSense transformed Google into an advertising powerhouse. Google created a rationalized ecosystem of free products such as Gmail, Google Maps, etc. The original concept of offering a free product to later gather a pool of users that could be leveraged into providing targeted ads had come to fruition.
Google Services :-
Over the years, Google has grown well beyond its search engine, providing a plethora of services utilized by billions of users across the planet. Some of the most prominent services are:
Gmail – A free email service launched in 2004 that now has more than 1.5 billion users.
Google Maps – Launched in 2005, it offers real-time navigation, traffic, and location information.
Google Drive – A cloud storage service where users can store their documents and share them with others, and work on documents together in real-time.
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides – The web-based tools for productivity (to rival Microsoft Office).
Google Photos – A cloud-based photo service that stores and shares photos using machine learning prominent in its design.
Google Chrome – A web-based browser launched in 2008, which quickly became the most widely used browser ever.
YouTube – Acquired in 2006, YouTube is the largest video sharing platform, and is owned by Google.
Android – A mobile computing operating system embedded in most phones around the globe.
Google Assistant – An artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant that works with Smart Phones, Smart Speakers, and other devices.
Google Cloud Platform – Offers enterprise-level Computing, Data Sciences, and Machine learning services.
These services, when combined, represent a massive digital ecosystem that can create sustained user engagement, while also maintaining Google’s ad-derived revenue stream.
Google Becomes an Alphabet Subsidiary :-
In August 2015, Google announced a massive reorganization of the corporate structure that established a new parent company called Alphabet Inc. With its creation of Alphabet, Google eliminated several of the experimental but equally successful companies initially part of Google, and created a new relationship between itself its core businesses (search, ads, YouTube and Android) and its other “more experimental” ventures. Now, Alphabet shares a place with other independent subsidiaries created by and controlled by Alphabet, including:
- Waymo – autonomous driving
- Verily – life sciences and health
- Calico – longevity and antiaging
- Google X (X Development) – semi-secret lab for moonshot projects including Project Loon and delivery drones.
As a result of the restructuring, shareholders and customers now know what they own or purchase, divisions can operate independently, and employees can focus on what they are working without distractions.
Controversies :-
Despite its record of innovative success, Google has been embroiled in several scandals, including:
Privacy concerns – Many critics contend that Google has been collecting too much data about people’s behavior, too often in a predatory manner.
Censorship and other ethical issues – Censorship initiatives such as “Project Dragonfly,” a censored search engine for China, has evoked mass protests from employees and public disapproval.
Workplace culture – Google has faced employee walk-outs over, how the company has handled allegations of sexual misconduct concerns and concerns with diversity and inclusion practices.
YouTube moderation – Google’s Youtube has faced excessive scrutiny due to misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech being circulated on the platform. Critics argue due to this scrutiny; YouTube may be the fastest growing most actively damaging social media platform, especially due to a lack of content moderation.
These factors have severely tested Google’s public reputation and raised, in some cases, doubts about corporate ethical obligations to the larger world as technology superpower.
Antitrust Scrutiny Over Search Dominance :-
As Google’s market share of online search and digital advertising grew, so did regulatory attention and scrutiny. From the United States, to the European Union, and India; all came accusations, investigations, and lawsuits against Google, claiming that it:
Abuses its monopoly power in the search and advertising markets.
Prioritizes its own services in a search return, harming others.
Bundles its apps (i.e., Chrome and Search) in with Android to stifle competition.
In 2018 the EU made headlines when it imposed a fine of more than €4 billion against Google for antitrust violations concerning Android. In the U.S. the Department of Justice filed a groundbreaking suit against Google in 2020, alleging that it has illegally maintained monopolies in search and search advertising.
These lawsuits are some of the strongest threats to its business model and could change Google’s core business model in the future.