Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Google But Were Afraid To Ask

Everything you always wanted to know about GoogleBut were afraid to ask
Paris, December 2008
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December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google
Google key success factors : Web specific ?

Scalability Network effects Data mining
Ability to easily grow at marginal costs Applied to infrastructures : ability to adapt its size to high load & volumes Applied to business models : ability to monetize millions of users
The utility of a good or a service varies with the number of users The reach of a critical mass of users constitutes a significant barrier to the entry
The web offers the opportunity to exploit and analyze a very large amount of data Users behavior can be analyzed to create monetizing value
Openness
Cocreation
Business model
The traditional walled garden1 media strategy becomes irrelevant Content and services must be open and interoperable to favor audience circulation
Non-traditional actors become part of the value chain Users, content creators and external developers are given the tools to create new markets and enrich services
Advertising is not a market but a business model Any market that attract advertising is a target for Google
1 Network or portal which offers only its own content or services to users December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google
...
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Why wont Google be affected by the crisis ? Why is Google trying to change the mobile world ? Why isnt YouTube a content portal ? Why does Microsoft fear Google ? How Google wants to compete with Facebook ? Why is Google buying satellites ? How does Google buy traffic ? Why did Google acquire DoubleClick ? Why doesnt Google monetize all its services ? How does Google capitalize on Open Source developers work ? How did Google capture the offline advertising market ? Why is Google stealing our voices ? Is PageRank a really competitive advantage ? How does Google turn advertising into information and performance ?
Annex: Network effect, two-sided market, glossary, financial , contact

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Why wont Google be affected by the crisis ?

4 levers will allow Google to increase its revenues amidst the economic crisis
Performance advertising
Bn$ 35 1
Licenses and other revenues

Internet Mobile On line video
Monetisation of the Internet Mobile audience
260 millions mobile subscribers worlwide oct 2008 1
During a crisis, performance advertising gains market shares

+ 3% 2007-2008 1
Explosion of the non advertising revenues

+450% 2007-2008
Bn$ 201
YouTube monetization increases

Estimates 2008 : Revenues = 200 M $
1
Revenues 2008
Revenues 2012
Google is in a situation in which it can resist the economic crisis and find new revenue sources, both advertising and non-advertising
: faberNovel estimates
1
...
Why is Google trying to change the mobile world ? (1/2)

Mobile industry is based on a traditional locked values chain.
Operating System
Terminal Portal Operator Web Contents
Examples:
Entry barriers stop Google from applying its models to the mobile industry:
Access restricted to services/contents and to their improvement

Operator portals favored over other portals Services offered by terminal manufacturers favored over other services Closed operating systems
Limited Network Access

Terminals assigned to a unique operator Difficulty of interconnecting networks
The mobile industry is not suited for the Google development model based on openness, interoperability and network effects.
...
Why is Google trying to change the mobile world ? (1/2)

In order to duplicate its open model, Google designed a three fold strategy :
Android : Open Source O.S.1
Android Developer Challenge:
Contest for developers to create new applications for Android
Lobbying
Google candidacy for mobile
license attribution aims to force the FCC2 to impose an openness clause to the winner
Telco partnerships
Pressure from Google to force
operators to offer its applications as default options
Open
Handset Alliance: Common initiative of 34 mobile phone industry players (manufacturers, suppliers and distributors) aiming at spreading Android
A success : clause partially

imposed on the winning bidder, Verizon.
Sharing
of advertising revenues between Google and operators
In addition, Google developed and acquired mobile devices applications :

Location-based services Games Social Networks Collaborative Tools
Cab4me FreeFamilywatch
Golfplay
JOYit
Wertago
Jaiku 3
ShareYour Grand central 3 Board
Google breaks open the mobile industry value chain to create an environment that will be fit to the distribution of its products and monetization model.
1 Operating System 2 Federal Communications Commission 3 Acquisitions
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Why isnt YouTube a content portal ? (1/2)

YouTube acquisition is part of a strategy to monitor key content and audience hubs.
Organise information
A new information silo: video
search
Give access to information

YouTube bandwidth
spending estimated to reach 1M$/day1
Monetise contents through various sources of audience

Broadcasting of contents
through Google websites as well as other sites
Next : Speech to text

technology : information searches within video contents
Revenue sharing logic
YouTube has already won the audience battle 75%

60%
May 2008
May 2007 16% 9% 4%8% 2% 3% 1% 1%
Market shares of 5 leading video websites, United States (may 2008 vs.may 2007) [%]2 1 NewYork Times 2 Hitwise 2008
...
Why isnt YouTube a content portal ? (2/2)

Unlike its competition, YouTube follows an open logic and focuses primarily on developing content distribution tools :
Encourage content providers to use the service Attract as many viewers as possible Monetize through relevant advertising tools
YouTube Program Partner : Payed providers of semiprofessional content
Broadcasting videos on YouTube website and other Google sites (ex : Google.com, GoogleNews) Exporting videos (blogs, social networks) and developing API1 for advanced broadcasting on third party websites Broadcasting on all video devices : television, mobiles, multimedia players, video consoles
Traditional advertising: AdSense and banners In-video advertising : Pre-roll, post-roll, overlay2
Broadcasting contracts with major content providers
Brand advertising: broadcasting video ads within an environment coherent with the brands image
E-Commerce: Affiliation of partner websites (Amazon, Itunes, video games)
YouTube acts as the platform of a two sided3 market composed of content providers and video seeking users.
1 Application Programming Interface. Standardized programming protocol allowing applications to communicate 2 Clickable text advertising displayed on a video 3 See Annex
...
Why does Microsoft fear Google ?

Googles ambition isnt limited to in browser Web services, but extends to any online or offline application market. Google sets out to enter the online application market, MSFTs cash cow :
Disruption of offline application market segments Consolidation of the online environment
Launching of the Office Google

software pack: a word-processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation tool and a calendar Free alternative to Microsoft Office pack
Launching of Google Gears:

Open Source project allowing an offline use of online applications
Claimed ambition of becoming

a standard and encouraging online languages as opposed to offline programming languages
Acquisition of SketchUp, a 3D
modeling software with a free version made available
Google partly destroys Microsofts market when shifting value from offline to online
...
10
How Google wants to compete with Facebook ?

In 2007, Google launched Opensocial : a series of multi platform API allowing developers to create compatible applications with partnering social networks,
Ex : Slideshare application available on Linkedin and hi5
OpenSocial is not a Facebook competitor but a meta-social network .
Network effects
Network effects
Network effects
Google wants to become the social data search engine and to monetize this data, leveraging network effects.
Facebooks platform is limited, Googles is the whole Web
...
11
Why is Google buying satellites ? (1/2)

Since 2005, Google has been multiplying investments in all kinds of infrastructures:

Free Wifi in Mountain View Investment in Fon: shared Wifi access Wifi Gratuit
Satellite
Wimax
60 M$ Investment Internet access in developing countries

Baloon Wifi Backbone1
Partnership A mobile high-speed internet access technology A 100 M users market by the end of 2008
Partnership announcement Internet access technology superior to satellites for isolated areas
100 M$ investment Expansion of highspeed networks
1 Long distance high-speed networks, core of the Internet network
...
12
Why is Google buying satellites ? (2/2)

Internet infrastructures is actually Googles business infrastructure:
Traffic on Google websites depends on internet infrastructure development and availability (Backbone, Wifi, Satellite,)
Google has three objectives when investing in the upstream part of its value chain:
Strengthen and secure existing infrastructure
Strengthening and securing existing infrastructure lightens Googles dependancy on its providers
Favor high-speed Internet access
Favouring high-speed Internet access means more time spent and usage volumes, thus increases Google services usage Future web users are Google services next users
Prioritize Internet access for unconnected countries or populations
Through infrastructures investments, Google reinforces its traffic providers and increases access to its services.
...
13
How does Google buy traffic ?

Google asserts its ability to attract users on the sole basis of its services quality and without turning to advertising Truth is Google largely buys traffic from providers
Browsers
Manufacturers
Toolbar
Portals
Firefox: 60 million daily

users in 2008 Google finances 85% of Firefox in exchange for having its search engine embedded in the browser
In 2006, partnership deal with Dell to have the Google search engine appear by default on Dell computers In 2008, partnership deal with Apple to have the Google search engine appear by default on Iphones (13 million devices sold by october 2008) Partnerships with manufacturers allow the search engine to be guaranteed to in a prime position.
The Google Toolbar is part of the web navigator, which makes Google the default search engine Adobe installs it as part of a package with Shockwave(2006) Sun has been installing it as part of a package with Java since 2005 (20 million uploads/month)
In 2005, Google bought a 5% stake in AOL for 1 billion$ (20 million subscribers at time of deal) Google became AOLs white label search engine Google expands its advertising network reach
Google has the financial power to buy traffic from partners, accessing to massive audiences.
...
14
Why did Google acquire DoubleClick ?

In 2007, Google acquired DoubleClick, one of the world leaders in display
advertising :
To position itself on the banner market Google moves up the long tail of advertisers
Ad budget per advertiser Banner Market
To reach for highly popular websites Market shares of main online advertisers in relation to website traffic 1
Advertising houses Adbrite < 100k UV2 4,1% 1,9% 100k1M UV2 4,9% 6,5% >1Mon UV2 0,5% 5,7%
Text ad market
AOL
DoubleClick
Traditional advertising market Google MSN Yahoo Number of advertisers
9,1%
71,4% 6,6% 4,7%
29,9%
41,6% 6,3% 7,3%
48,0%
15,8% 12,8% 16,5%
Google acquired DoubleClick to gain an expertise (display) and global market shares (highly popular websites)
1 www.attributor.com/blog/2008/03/ 2 Unique Visitors
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15
Why doesnt Google monetize all of its services?
Some Google services are free of charge and monetized through advertising :
Blogger: blog creating tool Google Health: service for managing and storing personal medical information GoogleNews: personalized mash-up of news articles and summary Picasa: photo sharing service Google SketchUp: 3D model creating tool Goog-411: phone information service
These services are actually indirectly monetized :

Tools designed to generate audience are made available
Monetization of blogs created on Blogger through AdSense or FeedBurner
Products specifically developed to improve other Google products

Google 411 created to better the video indexing on YouTube
Attract new customers through loss leaders

Picasa devised as a loss leader towards other Google products
Google global strategy allows strong indirect monetization of its products

...
16
How does Google capitalize on Open Source developers work ?

Google encourages development of open source applications:
Supplied with guides, tutorials, code extracts of Google products
10
Google code: platform designed for Open Source developers Google Search Code: code search engine
Automatic referencing of all code sections that can be found on the Internet
Events created for the Open Source community:

Google Summer of Code: grants awarded to Open Source student projects Google Developer Days: seminars dedicated to Google products
Through support of Open Source community, Google pursues 4 objectives:

Increase of total Internet traffic New applications create new uses, leading to increased total traffic Promotion of a more open Web Increasing the interoperability multiplies network effects1 Opensource is becoming an advantage to attack proprietary code strategies Assembling a free public relations team Developers chats are a very effective public relation tool Development of Open Source langages used by Google The number of available Open Source codes encourages the emerging of new products Feedback of Open Source developers helps creating new products
Google supports the Open Source community in a spirit of collaborative creation, one of Googles strategic pillars
1 See Annex
...
17
How did Google capture the offline advertising market ?

Online advertising market accounts for only 8% of the US market1:
3% 44% 21% 7% 8% 17%
Billboards Internet News Press Radio Daily Press Television
11
Most offline media (television, radio, press,) begin to be IPready with online versions
Google is exploring the offline ad market!
Ad transfer from online to offline

(YouTube on television) Entry on traditional offline markets (radio, billboards,) Integration of offline techniques (traditional fixed pricing) Partial adaptation of AdWords onto radio and television
Googles entry on this market anticipates new uses and broadens its offer. Not specifically successful for now
1 TNS Media Intelligence, US advertising market
...
18
12
Why is Google stealing our voices?

In 2007, Google launched Google Voice Local Search in the United States, a free and automated phone directory service : What is the business model of this free and ad-free service ? Google is creating a database of phonemes, recorded during calls in order to better its speech to text1 technologies:
Creation of a phoneme database
Development of speech to text technologies Indexing of YouTube audio tracks
2
Indexing of all audio/voice sources
Bla bla bla
Externalizing tasks onto users ( crowdsourcing 3) is a commonly used process by Google to improve its products.
1 Converting oral information into text 2 First experiments with political videos posted during the presidential campaign of 2008. 3 Neologism created in 2006 by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, Wired magazine editors
...
19
Is PageRank a really competitive advantage ? (1/2)

PageRank is Googles link analysis algorithm that measures the probability that a page will be relevant to users query :
Based on the correlation between the amount of links towards a page and their relevance It accounts for the notoriety of the sites that link to the page in question
PageRanks simplified formula is :
(A pages (u) PR is the sum of all PRs of pages linking to u (v), divided by the respective number of outbound links contained in pages v)
13
Google1 claims that PageRank is one of its search engines main competitive advantage :
A champion of democracy
The search engines cornerstone
A tool unlikely to be tampered with
1 http://www.google.fr/why_use.html
...
20
13
Is PageRank a really competitive advantage ? (2/2)

A tool that cant be tampered with?
Sale or exchange of famous website links (webringing) Search Engine Optimization1 techniques
An outdated technology?
Launch of search engines that dont use tools such as PageRank (Cuil, Powerset)
Googles search engine success relies on other factors :

Scalable architecture Quick/simple queries Relevance guaranteed by 200 other criteria
Capacity of increasing/ growing according to the volume of indexed pages and number of queries 2 millions servers by 2008
Clear query interface Simple and quick presentation of results
The search engines algorithm was subjected to 450 modifications in 2007
PageRank is only one of many Googles search competitive advantages. It is certainly not the main entry barrier to competitors on the search market.
1 Set of techniques aiming at improving a sites referencing on a search engine.
...
21
How does Google turn advertising into information and performance?(1/2)

Advertising income often provides an incentive to deliver poor quality search results Sergey Brin & Larry Page Most advertising models present strong weaknesses Strong intrusion Weak relevance Undefined performance
14
Large size adverts Slows down results

display from a search engine query
Influence results by
making paid for clients appear first Example: Opentext/Kelkoo Little or non-existent targeting
Impossible to reward
efficient advertising Example : television ads No direct measure of real performance Example : invoicing according to the number of displays (CPM)
...
22
How does Google turn advertising into information and performance?(2/2)

Displays advertising
defines
14
Relevance
For the user
Quality Score
Direct impact on advertising value
Performance
For the advertiser
Most relevant ad Qualityscore measures the relevance of the ad and is determined by the click throug rate on the ad. It impacts the display rank and Cost per Click:
Rank: relevant ads are pushed up,

non relevant ads do not appear Cost per click of the ad : performant ads are charged less
Less relevant ad Total cost of the advertising campaign is determined by the number of clicks on the ads and not by the number of displays.
Googles advertising model benefits the user (improved relevance) as well as the publisher (performance based billing & rebates)
...
23
Google : the network circulation value creation model

Traditional value creation Eg : Microsoft
Network value creation Eg : Google
$ Server Products $ $ Apps
Gmail
Apps $
Customer products $
Business Products $
Search engine $ $ $
$ Entertain ment $ Youtube
Partners
The global value of the company relies on independent lines of products/business units
The global value of the company relies on traffic between network parts (proprietary or partners)
...
24
Going further : are Googles key success factors limited to Google

Our conviction : Every company innovating in the digital industry must
address and capitalize on the 6 identified key success factors to perform on digital markets.
Our proposition : faberNovel proposes to align companies strategy,

development projects and existing products with these factors to ensure success optimization and market performance.
Download our comprehensive White Paper
Googles key success factors http://www.fabernovel.com
...
25
Annex

Definition : network effects Definition : two-sided market Pricing of a two-sided market Glossary Financial datas Acknowledgement Contacts
...
26
What is a network effect?

A network effect describes how a service becomes more valuable to its
users as more people use that same service
Phones utility is limited if the network is composed of 2 users
The utility for a user raises if the network broadens
According to Metcalfes law, the utility(U) of a network is proportional to the square of the number (n) of its users
U k*n2
Network effects creates critical masses of users. They represent significant barriers to entry for competitors.
...
27
What is a two-sided market?

A two sided market consists of a platform allowing 2 groups of
clients/providers to interact and which optimizes the revenue distribution among these groups with the objective of maximizing market sizes.
Exemple of the video game market
Crossed network effects Internal network effects
Price A
Price B
Side A Developers
Side B Consumers
Network effects in action

Internal effects
Utility to a new developer increases as the community of developers grows (shared knowledge) Utility to a new consumer increases as the community of consumers grows (secondhand market)
Crossed effects
A potential market for a developer gets bigger as more consumers enter the said market The number of games available to the consumer increases with the number of developers working on the platform
...
28
Pricing of a two-sided market

Price A > 0 Price A < 0
Side A
Platform1
Face A
Platform1
The platform may charge a side

Example 1 : Apple Appstore charges
developers by taking a revenue share on sold applications Example 2 : Microsoft makes consumers pay for video games
or subsidize a side
Example 3 : Google Android finances
developers through a contest Example 4 : Youtube finances video content providers
Who should you be charging? Who should be subsidized?
The platform must subsidize the groupe that is most price-sensitive and charge the group that is most sensitive to the other groups size.
1 Provided the sum of price A + price B is a fixed figure, a platform financing a group automatically charges the other group and vice versa
...
29
Financial data (1/2)

Revenues and Net margin (M$)
439 Revenues 1466 3189 6139 10604 16594
Revenue distribution/activity (B$)

Total 16,6 0,2 1%
CAGR Revenues 02-07 : 107%

Net margin CAGR Net margin 02-07 : 112% Licences and other revenus Partner websites (AdSense) 4203 3077 Google web sites 5,8 34%
10,6
100
2002
106
2003 2004
399
1465
2005
65%
2006
2007
CA 2007
Net margins growth outperform revenues growth
Most of Googles revenues still come from its own websites
78% 79%
2005 2006
85%
2007
Advertising revenue share to partner web sites is increasing2

and is the highest of the market Source: Google financial tables 2007 2 : calculated as Traffic Acquisition Cost/Google Network web sites revenues
...
30
Financial data (2/2)

Advertising revenues Traffic acquisition costs Turnover
R&D investments
16,4 10,5
6139
10604
16594
34,9%
2,1
6,1
31,5%
3,3
30,1%
4,9
599 9,0%
1229 11,0%
2120 12,0%
2005
2006
2007
2005
2006
2007
Controlled traffic acquisition costs

34,9% of advertising revenus in 2005 vs 30,1% in 2007
High R&D investments

+88%/year between 2005 and 2007
+ 26%
1,9
2,4
2005
2006
Data center costs are under control

In Billion $ : +26% 2006/2007 (vs +72% revenues)
Source: rapport annuel Google 2007
...
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Glossary
API : application programming interface. Standardized programming protocol
allowing applications to communicate Internet Backbone : main trunk connections of the Internet, made up of a large collection of interconnected high-capacity data routes and core routers that carry data across the countries and continents Crowd sourcing : act of outsourcing a task to users Data center : facility used to house computer systems and associated components O.S. : operating system Overlay ad : clickable text advertising displayed on a video Scalability: property of a process, which indicates its ability to handle growing amounts of work easily Search Engine Optimization : process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural search results (as opposed to paid search results) Speech To Text : technology converting spoken words to machine-readable input such as text Walled Garden : closed or exclusive set of information services provided for users by a network or portal
...
32
Acknowledgements
To faberNovel contributors :
Amaury de Buchet, VP Consulting Cyril Vart, VP Strategy & Development Alexis Arqui, Junior Project Analyst Mounir Fassouane, Junior Project Analyst
To the bloggers :
Olivier Ertzscheid from affordance.typepad.com/ Google Operating System : googlesystem.blogspot.com/ Richard MacManus from readwriteweb.com/ Techcrunch.com & Mobilecrunch.com/ Frdric Cavazza from fredcavazza.net/
...
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Stphane Distinguin Founder and CEO stephane.distinguin@fabernovel.com Cyril Vart VP Strategy & Development cyril.vart@fabernovel.com Pierre Fremaux Project Analyst pierre.fremaux@fabernovel.com Matthieu Lecomte Junior Project Analyst matthieu.lecomte@fabernovel.com Tl. : +33142722004
...
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Everything you always wanted to know about GoogleBut were afraid to ask

Paris, December 2008

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Google key success factors : Web specific ?

Annex: Network effect, two-sided market, glossary, financial , contact

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why wont Google be affected by the crisis ?

Licenses and other revenues

During a crisis, performance advertising gains market shares

Explosion of the non advertising revenues

YouTube monetization increases

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why is Google trying to change the mobile world ? (1/2)

Limited Network Access

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why is Google trying to change the mobile world ? (1/2)

A success : clause partially

of advertising revenues between Google and operators

In addition, Google developed and acquired mobile devices applications :

ShareYour Grand central 3 Board

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why isnt YouTube a content portal ? (1/2)

Give access to information

Monetise contents through various sources of audience

Next : Speech to text

Revenue sharing logic

YouTube has already won the audience battle 75%

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why isnt YouTube a content portal ? (2/2)

YouTube Program Partner : Payed providers of semiprofessional content

Broadcasting contracts with major content providers

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why does Microsoft fear Google ?

Launching of the Office Google

Launching of Google Gears:

Claimed ambition of becoming

How Google wants to compete with Facebook ?

OpenSocial is not a Facebook competitor but a meta-social network .

Why is Google buying satellites ? (1/2)

60 M$ Investment Internet access in developing countries

100 M$ investment Expansion of highspeed networks

1 Long distance high-speed networks, core of the Internet network

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why is Google buying satellites ? (2/2)

Favor high-speed Internet access

Prioritize Internet access for unconnected countries or populations

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

How does Google buy traffic ?

Firefox: 60 million daily

Why did Google acquire DoubleClick ?

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

Why doesnt Google monetize all of its services?

These services are actually indirectly monetized :

Products specifically developed to improve other Google products

Attract new customers through loss leaders

Google global strategy allows strong indirect monetization of its products

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

How does Google capitalize on Open Source developers work ?

Events created for the Open Source community:

Through support of Open Source community, Google pursues 4 objectives:

December 2008 Everything you always wanted to know about Google

How did Google capture the offline advertising market ?

Google is exploring the offline ad market!