Introduction
Google has been a market leader in the search and advertising space for over a decade and has an opportunity to gain a strong hold in the market. However, there are a few weaknesses and threats that Google face that it needs to overcome.
Here is the SWOT analysis of Google.
Note: Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to the organization, while Opportunities and Threats are external in nature.
1. Strengths:
1 Leader (dominance) in the web search and online advertising space.
2 Google earns more than 30% of the world's digital advertising revenue.
3 Google's Android OS has more than 83% of the worldwide smartphone OS market share.
4 It's digital advertising prowess commands massive consumer information, putting Google at a competitive advantage.
5 Market share dominance creates an advantage and ultimately a monopoly over competitors, customers and suppliers.
6 Exceptional at acquisitions, making 1.5 acquisitions a month from 2010 to 2015
2. Weaknesses:
1 Google lags behind in mobile ad revenues.
2 Mobile ad related technical challenges including: its desktop ad dependence on cookies which can't be transferred between devices, native apps discouragement of viewing mobile apps in Chrome & Facebook uses single sign-ons (SSOs) to tether third-party apps and sites back to its News Feed.
3 Social networking attempt with Google+ has a lack lustre appeal with the market.
4 Losing in the product search category.
5 Unless Google can shore up its defences against Facebook in mobile and social, and contain Amazon's expansion in product searches, its top-line growth could eventually stall out.
3. Opportunities:
1 Google looks poised to take advantage of a new market: "Near Me." searches for fast, yet relevant businesses close by.
2 The amount of searches for "near me" almost doubled in 2014, but accelerated in 2015 to year-over-year growth of 146%.
3 Capitalizing on the continued growth in the travel industry with a reported new travel app in the works.
4 Augment reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are still technologies in their infancy, but early trends indicate these could be major institutions in the near future that influence how we search for things (not to mention how we interact with the world around us).
5 Interconnectivity in homes and its related search creates a significant opportunity for google.
4. Threats:
1 Google is the top search engine in the world, but for product searches, users turn to e-commerce giant Amazon.
2 Facebook continues to dominant in mobile advertising.
3 Europe's antitrust complaints against Google increased in 2016.
Conclusion
Given, the rapid growth of global smartphone penetration, Google needs to focus heavily on Mobile and social advertising while investing in Augmented and Virtual Reality.
This blog is researched and authored by Rahul Kumar Paul Ghugloth and Akash Gupta.
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We will be updating the SWOT analysis from time to time.