Posts tagged Google
Mobile app market set to boom! But will it generate marketing revenues?
Mar 18th
Mobile app downloads are expected to increase from more than 7bn downloads in 2009 to almost 50bn in 2012, according to a new report from Chetan Sharma Consulting. The figures mean that app downloads will overtake CD downloads, but what’s in it for marketers?
The Chetan Sharma Consulting study, commissioned by app store Getjar, forecasts that the global mobile application economy will be worth $17.5bn by 2012.
The study also highlights that initially, the focus of making revenue from apps was based on paid downloads or subscription-based models. This however, is about to change.
Today, advertising-based revenue accounts for about 12% of app revenue, but by 2012 this figure is expected to rise to 28%.
It’s no wonder that Google has looked to cash in n the market. Its Android smartphone market now has over 30,000 available apps. This is way behind the Apple App Stores 100,000 applications - but then 30,000 applications is not a small number.
The price of mobile applications ranges from $0.99 to $999 but the average selling price in 2009 was about $1.90, the study says.
Over the next three years this is predicted to decrease by 29% and apps will get cheaper; however, advertising revenue derived from apps is likely to stay relatively flat.
More good news for the Android though, advertising revenue is predicted to be even bigger than revenues from paid app downloads.
By 2012, so-called “offdeck” apps that are offered independently from a carrier will be the biggest revenue generator, accounting for almost 50% of all app revenue.
By comparison, in 2009, apps available from mobile operators still accounted for more than 60% of all app revenue, but this will fall to just under 23% by 2012.
So who’s ahead in the game?
Easy: Apple. But Google is gaining some ground.
Despite mobile analytics company Flurry revealing that sales of Google’s Nexus One have so far been “disappointing”, if you add the total sales units for the Nexus One and Droid, Google is beating Apple.
The Nexus One sold a mere 135,000 units compared to Motorola Droid’s 1.05 million and Apple iPhone 3GS’ 1 million, since January.
Chetan says that the mobile app market will continue to grow “exponentially” as mobile devices become as powerful as computers, and wireless networks deliver consistently higher bandwidths.
Will this ad make you switch to Bing?
Mar 11th
This new ad for Microsoft’s Bing search engine is excellent. It goes right to the heart of the problem that many internet searches often have – finding what they really want, the first time.
As I’ve said before, Microsoft underwent extensive studies into how people used search engines, and what would make them switch before it even started to design Bing. It’s answer: the decision engine.
This ad, which is brilliant, funny and really speaks to consumers about what the offering is as well as its unique sell, will get me to try out Bing for sure.
I’ve loved Google, and I loved its Parisian Love ad, but I too, am sick of the information overload.
Bing is rising in the ranks but will it convince marketers?
Mar 8th
Earlier this month, Microsoft was launching an attack on Google saying its rival is anti-competitive. Today, Bing is launching an advertising assault on Google, but will all this child’s play convince marketers to come on board to this new, super-dooper decision engine?
Microsoft’s search engine may trail Google in searches, but when it comes to Fans on Facebook, the tech giant ranks number one!
To cement its position, Microsoft is set to launch a major advertising campaign that will encourage UK users to start using its Bing search engine.
The campaign will run across major TV stations – something Google only started doing last year after 10 years in the game – and will urge internet users to ‘Bing and decide’.
Microsoft wants to help searchers make more informed decisions. Of course, actually persuading people to move away from a search engine that, for many, has become synonymous with the internet is going to be a tough ask.
Bing is new, fresh and not another ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ project, according to Microsoft. Its attack on Google has been described as “trench warfare” and it won’t be over in days and months but years, warns the giant.
However, a study by Catalyst Group shows that although users like the new search engine, they are unlikely to switch.
A usability focus group, after using both engines, said they preferred Google, with only one third saying they liked Bing. That being despite the fact that 82% preferred Bing’s design, 64% preferred Bing’s organisation of features and another 64% preferred Bing’s refinement and filtering options.
With regards to relevance of results, the majority of users thought both engines preformed equally well. This goes to show how entrenched Google has become in our thinking when it comes to search.
When it came to paid ads it seems that again Bing came out top with users spending 150% more time looking at the ad space at the top of the page, possibly due to the refinement options available at the top of the page.
What makes Bing unique is its organization of results. Microsoft conducted extensive studies into how people used search engines, and what would make them switch before it even started to design Bing.
The challenge now for Microsoft is – as its own research revealed – that when choosing which search engine to use, the decision is subconscious. So even though studies show people might prefer Bing, most would stay with what they’re used to – Google.
Is that going to be the same chain of thought for advertisers and marketers?
The good news for Bing is its growing faster than Google did.
The bad news? It puts ads at bottom of the search page. Users of Bing don’t scroll through the search results as much as they would on Google because they don’t have to – by the very nature of Bing, the most relevant results are at the top. That’s the decision part…
This has consequences for ad placement. As users are less likely to scroll down, ads that are in the bottom half of the page will be seen less often hence placing a higher premium on getting a top PPC listing. This will encourage bidding wars, so it is likely that PPC rates in Bing will be higher than in Google.
But Bing is pushing hard to extend its advertising affiliate network. If advertisers are bidding more for Bing ads than Google ads, it will make Bing a more attractive proposition for affiliates than Google because an affiliate will earn more from Bing’s higher-priced ads.
In the long term, this could lead to Bing having a more extensive affiliate network than Google.
As anyone who is familiar with Microsoft knows, the company doesn’t release mature products. It instead launches to the marketplace as soon as possible and then relies on user feedback to fine-tune performance. So expect Bing to evolve, and quickly. Before you know it, we’ll be saying: “I Binged it”.
Microsoft vs Google in a case of the pot calling the kettle black
Mar 1st
Microsoft would obviously be among the first to say that leading firms should not be punished for their success, according to vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft Dave Heiner. So why is Microsoft verbally bashing Google out there in the media over antitrust and competition concerns?
It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black – and I will now share a Simpson episode to tell you why.
In season nine of the Simpsons (screened in 1998), an episode called ‘Das Bas’ saw Homer attracts the attention of Bill Gates when he starts his own internet company – Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net.
Here is some of the script that should illustrate Microsoft’s blatantly childish jealousy issues and the way the company is currently doing business:
GATES: Your internet ad was brought to my attention, but I can’t figure out what, if anything, CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet does, so rather than risk competing with you, I’ve decided simply to buy you out.
HOMER: I reluctantly accept your proposal!
GATES: Well everyone always does. Buy ‘em out, boys!
(Bill Gates companions begin to trash the “office”.)
HOMER: Hey, what the hell’s going on!
GATES: Oh, I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks!
Gates isn’t buying Homer’s company, he’s ‘trashing’ it – much the way, one could argue, that he is verbally trashing Google currently in the press.
Government competition agencies are increasingly focused on Google’s growing power in search and online advertising, according to Microsoft.
But don’t forget, government competition agencies have spent the past seven months investigating a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft that is thought to be ‘antitrust’ and ‘anticompetitive’ too.
Google is dominant in certain markets, including search advertising. Last year the DOJ told a federal court that Google’s book search plan is anticompetitive in several respects. (One big problem is that Google would help itself to essentially exclusive rights to tens of millions of books—effectively locking out everyone else.)
Last week, the European Commission said it was investigating various aspects of Google’s conduct, including claims of retaliation, exclusivity and manipulation of search results to disadvantage rivals. Google was reported by Ciao, a subsidiary of Microsoft.
On Microsoft’s blog today, it said, “Google’s public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere—at Microsoft.”
It says that Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors.
It’s worth asking whether Google’s response really addresses the concerns that have been raised. I’ve asked Google and I waiting to hear back…but will the search giant even dignify such allegations and join this childish fight?
When the Yahoo and Microsoft partnership was approved last month, many were singing the praises of the pair. Others, myself included, said that while it is good for competition, the pair have quite the task ahead of them if they are going to get consumers and advertisers to migrate away from Google (a brand they have stuck by for over ten years). How will they do it? I pondered.
Bashing, it seems. But Microsoft maintains that it is not alone in trying this business tactic:
Heiner says: “Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors. (I’ve seen plenty of competitor complaints. Novell, when current Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at the helm, was never hesitant about complaining to regulators about Microsoft. Google hasn’t been shy about raising antitrust concerns about Microsoft in the last few years, either.)
“This is the way that competition law agencies function: They look to competitors in the first instance to understand how particular markets operate, the practices of dominant firms and the competitive significance of those practices.
“Of course, as we have always said, it is vitally important that competition law authorities also listen to and assess the views of customers, business partners and everyone else affected by a dominant player’s business practices. Ultimately what’s important is not who is complaining, but whether or not the challenged practices are anticompetitive.”
Is Google anticompetitive? Or just too big to touch?
Publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies and others want to see real competition in search and online advertising, says Microsoft.
But if that is provided, what guarantees that people will switch?
Google in trouble again. Microsoft dobbed.
Feb 24th
Google yesterday took the wraps off its new publisher-side ad platform, combining its ad and search technologies with DoubleClick’s. Today, it has been met with a frosty reception from the European Commission over several competition complaints from rivals.
Google’s combined DoubleClick and Google Ad Manager product is designed to ease the complexity publishers face in serving ads, managing ad network relationships and maximizing revenue from inventory sold directly and through ad nets or exchanges, says Google’s blog.
New features include an open API that lets publishers tie in third-party applications like forecasting and workflow tools, integration with the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and new yield-optimization features.
But the European Commission is now considering complaints from three online companies regarding Google practices including its search rankings, which could stop the search giant dead in its tracks.
The complaints from UK price comparison site Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr allege that Google’s search algorithm demotes their sites in web search results because they compete with Google.
Microsoft-owned Ciao has also complained to European authorities about Google’s standard terms and conditions, which has led Google to tell some reporters that it believes Microsoft has fuelled the complaint fire.
Google has been plagued by regulatory scrutiny in recent years. Most recently, the US Department of Justice has challenged Google’s settlement with book publishers and authors groups to create an online digital archive. The US Federal Trade Commission is also seeking more information on the competitive impact of its proposed $750 million purchase of mobile advertising company AdMob.
Now, the European Commission has written to Google to find out how its search functions work.
But Google is betting publishers will want the simplicity of a single provider to manage their inventory and provide monetization options through either its AdSense ad network or the DoubleClick exchange.
Google said on its blog, “We see an opportunity to improve ad serving even further by combining Google’s technology and infrastructure with DoubleClick’s display advertising and ad serving experience. Since we acquired DoubleClick in March 2008, our engineering and product teams have been working with online publishers to tackle the obstacles that prevent them from maximizing revenues from their websites.”
Either way you look at it, this is a sign of many more battles to come when it comes to the search giants. But is Google really doing anything wrong? Perhaps its competitors are just jealous…
Too sexy for Apple?
Feb 22nd
Believe it or not but Apple has finally got something wrong, upsetting customers - and no, I’m not talking about the iPad.
Apple has begun enforcing stricter policies around apps available from its app store in a move that could see some apps removed entirely.
While the tech giant has so far only removed adult-themed apps, some games have also been removed.
Techcrunch reports that no more applications with “overtly sexual content” will be allowed, however, the criteria in which apps on the Apple store will be measured remain unclear.
The policy is expected to alarm some developers, and like other attempts to censor internet content, could see some apps banned for no reason at all - or at least in a case of misunderstanding (think of how in India you can’t look up ‘sex discrimination laws’ because the search term ‘sex’ is banned.
The news has already prompted many scathing opinions and blog posts on Mac enthusiasts sites such as cultofmac.com and 9to5mac.com. Blog posts on the sites are warning developers to make sure they don’t feature any “sexy women in apps” deeming the bans “ridiculous”.
The pulling of apps is in response to what is being dubbed as “sexy apps”, which also includes porn.
The move comes at a rather convenient time, with many touting that the clean-up attempt is to ready the market for its iPad, which is due to hit stores next month.
The iPad is expected to be popular with schools - carrying textbooks.
It seems that no medium is safe from censorship these days. And it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For years, the internet has known no or little inhibitions - there were no clear boundaries and anything and everything was available for download. We called it freedom. And until the internet giants got on board with censoring content available through their sites, there was no way to apply any laws on the world wide web as it isn’t confined to any one jurisdiction.
But the question is now, how much power should these ‘internet giants’ have over what content can and can’t be seen - and furthermore, what is too “sexy”?
Can Microsoft and Yahoo knock Google off its throne?
Feb 19th
Steve Ballmer has described the approved partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo as a “milestone”, while Carol Bartz claims it to be a “breakthrough”. But why is this ‘alliance’ so significant?
The decision has been resting on the shoulders of the US Department of Justice and the European Commission for the past seven months. Japan, Korea and Taiwan are still yet to approve what will surely be a threat to Google’s ten year reign over the search market.
Google, which has a 85.78% share of the global search market, has sat on its throne quite comfortably this past decade as every competitor that has entered the market has still failed to even make a dent in Google’s audience. However, with a combined market share of almost 10%, Yahoo and Bing are proving serious in their bid for leadership of the search world.
Both CEO’s Bartz and Ballmer suggest the ‘alliance’ is a bid to boost innovation. More simply, it’s about creating more competition and boosting revenues.
The global search market is estimated to be worth around $33 billion. In the US alone it is said to be $4 billion and in the UK, marketers spent £1.75 billion in 2009 alone.
Yahoo is hoping to see some of that spend on its bottom line next year – it will be taking 88% of all search revenue generated from its partnership with Microsoft.
The question on everyone lips now is just how long will it take the pair to increase their share.
The deal will not be implemented straight away. In fact, it will take almost until the end of this year to know whether or not the alliance has been a success.
One thing we can be sure of though, is that it will certainly force Google to rethink its strategy (namely its Adwords platform which has in the past gathered criticism) and also keep it on its toes to innovate and offer bespoke offerings (not like Buzz!).
Poor Google. If you come in at the top there is only one place to go.
But Warren Cowan, CEO of Greenlight, writing for UTalkMarketing.com, is not convinced that Google’s grip on the search market will be strained.
He says that the idea that a Yahoo/Bing merger will create a search player with close to 30% market share (as quoted in AdAge) might be accurate for the US, but not in the UK – or western Europe for that matter.
Google is simply too big. But then again, isn’t what they said about all those banks that went bust (too big to fail)?
The big challenge now, however, is tempting away loyal Google users who have, for the past ten years, used little else when it comes to search.
YouTube – the online video revolution that’s now 5 years old
Feb 16th
YouTube, which now clocks up more than 1 billion views a day, is 5 years old, and I am struggling to remember what we ever did without it.
What in the world did we ever do without YouTube? What did we do during boring lunch breaks at our desk, where did we go to watch some of the world’s funniest ads?
When the three former PayPal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim created the video-sharing site in February 2005, they had no idea of the phenomenal success they would endure.
In fact, they were so unsure, they sold the site to Google in November 2006, for $1.65 billion.
Anyway, when registering the YouTube domain on February 14, 2005, Chen, Hurley and Karim set out to create a place where anyone with a video camera and an internet connection could share a story with the world – how romantic.
Now YouTube is one of the most visited websites in the world. Actually, according to latest internet viewing figures from Hitwise, YouTube was the fifth most visited site in the UK last week.
Nielsen figures put it at the top most visited site in the US for the month of January.
Coining the term ‘vloggers’, YouTube gave people a voice – for free. It said on its official blog: “Breaking open access to media and distribution means delivering the world’s largest global audience and the revenue models they need to succeed, as well as the tools they need to control their content.”
Advertisers have long taken advantage of YouTube, especially in the viral marketing arena. These days, advertisers will actually ‘test’ their campaign son YouTube before officially rolling it out to TV and cinema audiences. Some campaigns are just made with YouTube in mind – for a website to be able to do that, to set itself up as an advertising delivery platform that can reach millions around the globe, is quite frankly phenomenal.
It changed digital marketing forever and allowed advertising to be passed around via the office email, between friends and social networkers. Whole TV episodes can be watched via YouTube as well as music clips and radio channels.
Even the Queen and the Pope have their own YouTube channels. So what’s next for YouTube?
Looking forward, the site’s goal is to set the standard in online video delivery. Fast loading, high quality videos need to be able to play on any device, anywhere, anytime. Chad Hurley said on the sites blog, “Whether we’re supporting 1080p, 3D, or deploying auto-speech recognition technology, we innovate with an eye toward providing the best possible experience.”
Did you catch that? Hurley just said 3D.
Windows Phone 7 – in detail
Feb 15th
Following reports yesterday that Microsoft was to launch a challenger to the smartphone market currently dominated by Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Andriod and RIM’s Blackberry, the tech giant has unveiled the details of its closely kept mobile secret.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 for the first time. The handset will pull together content from social networking sites and other web services on a scale unseen on competing platforms and will most likely pose a serious threat to its competitors RIM, Apple and Google.
Why?
It’s flashy and new and has been designed with the user in mind, making all those things we use our mobile for more accessible, easier to use and to navigate.
Previous Windows Mobile versions were scrapped to make way for a completely new design that integrates Microsoft’s Zune music player and the Xbox Live gaming service.
The tech giant is ready to hit the smartphone market big time and has already secured partners including Samsung, HTC, HP, Sony Ericsson, Dell, LG and Toshiba.
At the Windows Phone 7 unveiling, Joe Belfiore, VP for Microsoft’s Windows Phone division, said the explosion of applications and web services available on mobile phones meant devices had become far too complex claiming that that phones had started to resemble PCs but “a phone’s just not a PC – it’s a smaller, more intimate device”.
Microsoft wanted a smart design that would separate applications and bring together some of the key things that are most important to people.
It’s five key hubs, that feature on a completely new interface with a ‘start’ page based around live ‘tiles’ representing the most common tasks include people, pictures, office, music + video and games.
The ‘people’ tile is all of a users contacts from Outlook, social networking sites and web mail services – pulled together with thumbnail images into one interface. People the user has recently communicated with rise to the top and for each contact the phone can display their recent activity on various social networking sites.
Under the ‘pictures’ tile is all of the users photos taken with the phone, synced from a PC or uploaded to social networking sites. Photos uploaded by friends to their social media profiles can also be accessed.
The Office’ tile is pretty self-explanatory, it allows users to view and edit documents or make voice, text and picture notes.
Every Windows Phone 7 will essentially be a Zune music player, with users able to sync music and videos using PC software similar to iTunes under the ‘music + video’ tile. Third-party music and video applications such as Pandora are also integrated.
Lastly, finally finding a way to take Xbox to the next level, under the ‘games’ tile users will be able to play games against other Xbox Live users.
Microsoft has said a key priority with the new operating system was maintaining consistency in design. Each Windows Phone 7 device will have three buttons on the front - Start, Search and Back. The tile menu interface will also be virtually the same on all handsets.
The built-in calendar pulls together appointments from both web-based personal calendars and from Microsoft Exchange, while addresses and phone numbers are automatically hyperlinked. Clicking on an address brings it up on Bing Maps.
The maps feature is interesting, and will be a major competitor to Google Maps. By simply typing “sushi” into the search function – which is of course powered by Bing – the user is shown all of the sushi restaurants in the immediate area plotted on a map. From that screen the user can get directions, ring a restaurant or read reviews.
The web browser is based around the same code as the desktop Internet Explorer, and there is full support for multi-touch gestures such as pinching to zoom. But just like the iPhone, Adobe Flash support won’t be present at launch.
So that’s it. It all looks pretty simple to use, and smart too. But one burning question remains: what about apps?
With the actual launch to consumers still so far away, Microsoft said it would reveal more details about the applications that will be available on the platform at its Remix conference later this year.
Google – Buzz or Boredom?
Feb 15th
From Bruce Townsend, Actinic
Google seem to have created a bit of a buzz lately with a product called… well, Buzz. But is it any good, and should marketers pay it any attention?
Google Buzz is essentially a feed reader, and a pretty basic one at that; in fact it seems to be derived from Google Reader, which has been around for a few years now.
With Buzz, though, Google have done some clever things. They’ve included support for media; given it a particular focus on social networking sites; and made it easy to add feeds from the main ones. They’ve also integrated it with Google Mail. So now you can check your emails and view posts from all the people you are following, all in one place – including picture feeds from Flickr and Picasa, and video from YouTube.
They’ve also branded and marketed it quite neatly. Coupled with its profile within Google Mail, this has grabbed a lot of attention and made it the talked-about application of the moment.
Being a feed reader, information does only flow in one direction. Comments posted only appear in Buzz, not in the application the original message came from. This may prove to be a weakness, and makes it vastly inferior to Flock, which has never gained much of a following. On the other hand, Buzz has the benefit of Google’s massive weight behind it.
To really gain traction, Buzz may have to actually wean people away from services like Twitter, and it may be too late in the day for that. Initially it will probably be used mainly for person to person interaction, particularly Google Mail users. But it could become a useful tool for businesses wanting to monitor what customers are saying. And with Google behind it, who knows how far it will go?
It’s certainly one to watch.
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