So another week and another attempt by Google to crack the social media game. Its latest salvo is named Google+ and from all the reports that I’ve read so far, the service is a very close copy of Facebook, its most obvious target. Google in recent times has had a bumpy time trying to work the social media landscape. Google Wave was released last summer with promises that it would redefine email communication amongst groups, and that service turned out to be a very big flop, put out of its misery earlier this year. Then came the much maligned Google Buzz, which seems to have mostly been the victim of a very, very poor roll-out and communication strategy. The early reviews with Google+ are pretty positive, especially surrounding a few features that seem to separate it from the competition. Although time will be the ultimate judge, its pretty safe to say that this latest effort is the company’s best start yet.
However, the real question for me is why does Google, with an almost monopoly-like market share of the internet search business want a piece of social media so bad? Well, the answer clearly has something to do with money. If reports are to be believed, Facebook is set to generate $5 billion in revenue this year, which is more than double what they generated last year. Those are not numbers Google can afford to sneeze at, especially when you consider that Google brought in $30 billion in revenue last year, which is only 6 times more than 7-year old Facebook. The writing on the wall is pretty clear, there are big bucks to be had in social media, and Google clearly wants a piece of the action.
A bigger and more important reason however might be that whomever is able to ultimately rule social media, will become the ultimate gatekeeper of what people do on the internet. Primarily as a result of Facebook’s advent, a growing number of people have begun to think of the internet as what happens within their social networks. Facebook users in January spent an average of 2hrs and 12 minutes sharing updates, news, pictures, and general items of interest with everybody in their network. This 6.5% increase over last year represents a growing trend of internet users using their social portals to decide where on the web they want to go. It is this gatekeeper power that I believe Google is most interested in wrapping its large arms around.
However, the real question for me is why does Google, with an almost monopoly-like market share of the internet search business want a piece of social media so bad? Well, the answer clearly has something to do with money. If reports are to be believed, Facebook is set to generate $5 billion in revenue this year, which is more than double what they generated last year. Those are not numbers Google can afford to sneeze at, especially when you consider that Google brought in $30 billion in revenue last year, which is only 6 times more than 7-year old Facebook. The writing on the wall is pretty clear, there are big bucks to be had in social media, and Google clearly wants a piece of the action.
A bigger and more important reason however might be that whomever is able to ultimately rule social media, will become the ultimate gatekeeper of what people do on the internet. Primarily as a result of Facebook’s advent, a growing number of people have begun to think of the internet as what happens within their social networks. Facebook users in January spent an average of 2hrs and 12 minutes sharing updates, news, pictures, and general items of interest with everybody in their network. This 6.5% increase over last year represents a growing trend of internet users using their social portals to decide where on the web they want to go. It is this gatekeeper power that I believe Google is most interested in wrapping its large arms around.
No comments:
Post a Comment