Main issues of Google

There are too many things to say about Google.
But today, I want to say about three issues in them.

1. Google TV
2. Asian Market

1. We are not ready for Google TV.
Google announced the launching of Google TV recently as expected. But I think it is too early.
TV have been the most important media in past and will hold same position in future. It’s not because of only about the spending time of people in TV or the quality and quantity of contents. It is because it’s symbolic meaning of center of people’s life. So the potential of the TV is so huge. So there had been a lot of attempting to bring the TV down from broadcasting corporation to the internet world.
Google TV is not new thing in the world. However, the attempt could be realized because it is Google, not Microsoft. I mean, Google could announce the launching because of the “open platform”. It is pretty obvious why Google is interested in this area. It is because of the advertising. Google said, in the way why the TV is so important, first, Americans watch 5 hours a day in average, second, 70 billion dollars are paid for TV advertising only in United States, and last, 4 billion peoples are watching TV in the world.

But it is not possible that Google TV will be 4 billion. Of course they will open the new “Smart TV” market and the market will grow while Google increase the market share of it. Just like smart phone market. TV manufacturers, such as Samsung, Sony, or LG already have their own internet TV line up. And they will position Android TV as another line up. However, the question is really people watch TV through Android TV as Google expects now? I don’t think so.

First of all, it is too slow. It is not the problem of web. It is the problem of Graphic solution. So it has to be High-end computing & Graphic device. And second, I don’t get how would they get the TV contents. It is so hard. The business world of broadcasting is so diverse and complex. And how would they appeal to them?

So far, I don’t think Google TV will solve this problem. Of course it will be solved someday but still it needs more time to me.


2. Google in Asia Market
Google is not doing well in asian market.
Google has serviced Japan since 2001, but Google never won against Yahoo Japan. The market share of Google Japan is 38.2% while Yahoo Japan is 51.1%. The situation in Korea is worse than that. The market share of Google Korea is only 3%, while Naver is 78%. And as you might know, the business in china is even invisible.

Google Japan and Korea changed their main page with providing many contents instead of their trademark, simple main page. Because Japanese and Korean users prefer it. However, it seems Google threw away their own philosophy and doing wrong in positioning. I remember one of Google marketer said “Google makes more profit when the users leave our websites as soon as they get the search result.” And it was quiet impressive because others were trying to keep their users in sites as long as they can.

main page of Google Korea. upper one is original, and bottom one is recent changed.

Where is Microsoft now?

It was 1980, exactly 30 years ago, the legend started.
When IBM chose Bill Gates as a supplier of OS of personal computer, Bill Gates developed and supplied MS-Dos. Inspired by Macintosh, Bill Gates announced new operation system, MS-Window. Since then, many valuable companies have failed in challenging Microsoft. Lotus 1-2-3, Netscape, and even Britannica have failed. Also, even the Apple was in big crisis while in competing Microsoft.

But now, Microsoft didn’t continue its success history recently.
The alliance called “anti-Microsoft” (Google and Apple) seems succeeded.
They realized MS is not big threat anymore and started to fight against each other.
Some might say it is because Bill Gates retired and it might be true.

But I want to find the reason from somewhere else.
How did Microsoft grow? Microsoft simply grew just in way of investigate and copying other’s. MS-Dos was simply imitation of CP/M, MS-Window was of Macintosh, MS Office was of Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3, and Internet Explorer was of Netscape.
However, even they have copied other company’s software, Microsoft put their best effort to develop better product than original one.
But most important factor of their success was investigation.
Microsoft had extraordinarily good sense in knowing what will be the biggest agenda in future of IT industry. With this sense, they could find the opportunities and never lost in competition.

But somehow, it seems they lost their sense.
They haven't find any new business model for a long time and this is very big problem.
Maybe it is because Bill Gates retired, or something else. But what is obvious is that Microsoft had lost all the agendas of today. All of them went to Apple and Google who were the once core member of “Anti-Microsoft alliance”.

Without taking it back, or finding new agenda or new business model, Microsoft will be remained ordinary (but big!!) company. It will be very interesting to see how Microsoft will choose and how much ability Steve Ballmer has.

How are you, Foursqure??

Nowadays, even if the company is not making money right now, it seems most important business model is amount of users, rather than revenue itself. I have been searching how Foursquare is creating revenue but couldn’t find any significant profit. And also, it seems Dennis Crowley, the founder of Foursquare, is more focusing on gaining users.

Who is Dennis Crowley? Of course, he is the founder of Foursquare. But also, he is the one who previously founded Dodgeball, the friend-location-tracking application, and sold it to Google. He might know how the taste is like of founding a company and sell it.

The business concept of Foursqure is that users are publicly sharing recommendations of the businesses they frequent while company reward users with points and titles such as “mayor” and “deputy mayor” for checking in repeatedly.

It is pretty obvious that Foursquare is gaining great market power with local shops by its enormous users or potential users. And furthermore, it seems to become new advertizing media itself and forcing local shops to be aware of it. Even though it had been quiet time since internet has introduced to public, the last industry that was not much influenced by internet was the local small shop industry. However, foursquare is aiming to it and trying to change all the crust of that industry.

The business model of it can be variable. They can create revenue from venues, or advertiser with various ways, such as a restaurant who paid for premier service can be listed in place which users can easily find on the screen, or collected users data can be provided to advertiser.. and so on. However, they will never make their users to pay since the numbers of users are the most essential part of their business.

However, I think the best way to make synergy in creating revenue is to be combined with other sites, such as Google or yahoos. Because those companies had been searching for new business model for a longtime and they have knowledge of how to implicate the data of users. And also, it seems creating revenue with Foursqure alone seems little bit limited (at least, compare with synergy) to me.

On April 6th 2010, there was a news that Yahoo is trying to buy Foursquare for 100 million dollars. Even if Dennis would refuge this deal, I’m pretty sure that there will be much more news about merging Foursqure by other companies. Let’s wait and see how it works.

Running my blog..

It is my first blog.
I don't know what is going to be filled.
Honestly I havn't decided yet.
But I will fill this page with something fully from my heart.
Let's see what this will be.