Googles Country Experiences: France, Germany, and Japan - Essay Example

? Google’s Country Experiences: France Germany, Japan Google’s Country Experiences: France Germany, Japan Executive Summary Google is the largest search engine in the world with billions of pages indexed. Today, Google provides over dozens of services in different languages and dialects. Most revenues come from advertisers, such as paying for click (Adwords, Adsense and Google checkout). Users access Google for free but in exchange, they get to view a few advertisements and promotional campaigns from various organizations. Google is therefore considered a very successful company and mostly preferred to use as the Internet search engine. Some countries, though, do not have preference to access it for different reasons, ranging from cultural heritage and leading technology. For instance, Google France, German and Japan contested Google’s applications including its ability to address censorship and prolific advertisements. Likewise, these countries contest the use of digitalise books from American universities, which are actually supported by the American culture. To counter unprecedented Google dominance in the global sphere, each country created their own search engine with appropriate government investment. In France, the Franco- Germen project Quaero ensued in 2005.Then, in 2007, the Germans decided to develop their own project, Theseus. Finally in Japan, the Grand Voyage Project was developed in 2005 in response to the needs of the local population. All projects contained more visual imagines to beat Google; however, these countries’ investments are not substantial when compare to Google’s financial base. Google analysed the situation and put a lot of effort to adapt to the unique and sensitive cultural elements in order not to lose its global market share. The organization continues improving technology and invests in R&D centres around the world. Google learned from the past and evolving experiences with France, German and Japan that there is a strong need to adapt business practices in a host country to integrate values, norms and preferences imbibed in culture and to consider various government regulations. Introduction Google Inc., based in America, was created by two brilliant Stanford University PHD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Since then, Google has exhibited unprecedented growth by providing dozen of services and products, like fast and simple search engine, maps, web, communication and publishing, advertizing and many more. When Google used a Ranking system technology, the system not only looked for keywords, but also searched results based on the popularities and numbers of other web sites that were linked to the page. Google launched its IPO in 2004 that offered a 23 billion value market. Today, Google is one of the biggest company in a country with a value market of about 200 billion. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/11/03/groupon-is-the-biggest-internet-ipo-since-google/ The money Google makes is from two main source ads (21 billion of revenue in 2008) and selling technology to other sites. When users look for some information in the Google website they can see organic result and advertisements (sponsored links). Through 2001 to November 2011, Google made about 105 acquisitions, including the video sharing service YouTube, and online advertising company, DoubleClick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google http://books.google.com/books?id=alysnLedf5oC&pg=RA1-PA22&dq=Google+for+business+in+many+countries+opportunities+and+exportability&hl=en&ei=PEnETqv7Ns_PrQe3pZyUDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CGMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false By 2000, Google became the world’s largest search engine with billion-page index where users could search information in 10 different languages. Remarkably today, they offer their applications in 150 languages and dialects. 1.Q. How does a search engine work and make money? The search engine of Google is a powerful tool. Google uses a special algorithm to generate search results. How they generate the results is deemed a secret and poses the organization’s competitive advantage from other search engines from the World Wide Web. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google1.htm From the search engine program, just like most engine programs called spider or crawlers, Google has the biggest index of keywords and the locations from where those words can be found. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google1.htm. The algorithm Google uses, called a RankPage, is described as each page possessing some relevancy score, to wit: 1. The frequency and locations of keywords within the Web page; 2. How long Web page has existed; and 3. The number of Web pages that link to the pages in question. For example, if a certain user stays in Singapore, that result will be assume a predefined local domain served up as Google.com.sg. The most important factor is to determine how many the Web pages are currently linked to the number of pages linked to a particular site and validate its relevance. As more Web pages are linked to the Web site page, then the more these pages’ rank increases. The highest rank is shown on the top of the Google search result page. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google1.htm When compared to the other competitors, Google has multiple ways to earn revenue; not only from investment and selling’s shares of its stock. Google creates three methods to partner with merchants and advertising: Google Adwords , Google AdSense and Google Checkout . With AdWords (Cost-Per-Click), a company can submit ads to Google that includes a list of keywords relating to the product or service provided by the company. When users start to look in Web for some kind information and type keywords, the ads will appear in case related words are the same (as for the company advertising on the SERP in a sidebar). The advertiser pays every time users clicked on one of its advertisements. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google4.htm AdSense is similar, but ads are not displayed on a Google SERP, where webmaster can integrate ads into his own site. Google scan and analyze the contents. Then, Google chooses the ads that have keywords relevant to the Webmaster site. Every time users click on the ads on the webmaster site, the web master receives a portion of the ad revenue (Google get the rest) http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google4.htm For both ways, Google creates a good source of advertising for users, who are looking for some specific products or services, or to form business alliances through the Internet. It makes greater chances to find customers with users in a Web, who already have established some form of searching for particular sets or kinds of information. Google Checkout is a service designed to make online purchases easier for both the consumer and the retailer. On the consumer end, users create a free Google Checkout account. Part of the account creation process includes entering a credit or debit card number, which Google stores in a secure database. When the user visits a retailer that subscribes to Google Checkout, he or she can click on the checkout option and Google facilitates the transaction. This means that the user does not have to enter a card number every time he or she makes a purchase. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google4.htm What is exportability of the search engine’s technology and business model? Google opened sales offices in most of the major countries around the world. Google provides information in 150 languages and dialects. Also, the search engine offers high technology tools with continuous improvement. Today Google Inc. works on paying special attention to integrate cultural distance, specifically with regards to the use of distinct language. Google provides information in national languages in any country like France, German and Japan even originally it is an American company. Also, it took some time for them to adopt an administrative distance, for example, a Chinese administrative and policy framework, which is out rightly different from the US. Considering geographic distance, the organization acknowledged that it is difficult to set up work with no office in a host country. Therefore, Google opened sales offices and R&D centers in France, German and Japan to better understand advertisers’ needs and conform to the local culture. Also, economic distance is accounted for when some countries exemplify underdevelopment of payment infrastructure or exhibit customer loyalty depending on the needs of the consumers and how organizations are able to adapt and adjust to economic policies and self regionalization (BOOK p. 225). Google’s business model is based on advertising. Today, Google provides a search engine with more than three billion Web pages containing an index. Google exhibits a human-oriented browser interface. The people can use a service for free but in exchange, they get to view a few ads, and Google earn revenue from businesses that place the ads. http://books.google.com/books?id=NCwVO0bB-VoC&pg=PA38&dq=google+business+model&hl=en&ei=3_3CTqK-L8eciAfY2qWADg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=google%20business%20model&f=false. Also as long as the search createria is kept in secret, it would be virtually difficult or even impossible for other organizations to immitate Google’s strategies and its core competence in the industry within which it succeeds to operate. Even Google Inc. is so successful today and globally financially blessed, Google depends on countries where most Internet users and advertisers are located. In fact, 90% its advertisers are in just ten countries, like America, Britain, Germany, Japan and Canada. http://books.google.com/books?id=alysnLedf5oC&pg=RA1-PA22&dq=Google+for+business+in+many+countries+opportunities+and+exportability&hl=en&ei=PEnETqv7Ns_PrQe3pZyUDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CGMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=falseThe Government regulations from these different nations present a regulatory barrier to enable Google to effectively do business with them. Google takes into account cultural sensitivity. such as the increased ability to understand other cultures, recognize diverse characteristics of culture, and research culture differences by opening their own R&D center (in 2008, Google spent on R&D an estimated amount of 2,793.2 billion (BOOK p.201)). However, some countries took actions against Google regarding the kind information that Google provides. For instance in Germany and France, Google was asked to remove links pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic and other controversial subjects for the countries (BOOK). 2. Q. Why are many governments threatened by Google? How they did counter this threat? France France is threatened by Google for a long time because for the many years, Google has reflected the largest internet market share in search engine market (2007-85.8%) in that country. It was apparent that Google touched on the sensitive side for France that was influenced by its cultural heritage. The popularity of Google in France continues to grow. The latest statistics obtained in November showed that the proportion of the search engine on the market increased by 0.54% to 88%. Now every nine out of ten users residing in France have preferred to access this particular search engine. Google has been reported to be very attractive for advertisers as a search engine site and became a monopolist for several years now. France imposed a ruling that Google should screen their advertisements to prevent fake products from being offered to its citizens. The ruling is hereby cited as: “Google holds a dominant position on the advertising market related to online searches.  Its search engine enjoys a wide popularity and currently totals around 90 percent of the Web searches made in France. Moreover, there are strong barriers to entry for this activity.” http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/07/02/googles-ethical-standard-leads-to-french-monopoly-ruling/ Also, France was against Google’s support to access electronic books and documents from diverse libraries from the US, Britain and other well-known libraries such as Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities. France interpreted the easy access to these academic sources of information as a means to strengthen US power to set up a global cultural agenda (BOOK). In fact, in a book entitled “America the dangerous” , the author indicated that America has colonized other’s minds even more than their territories. http://books.google.com/books?id=WTz-2DB0Xb8C&pg=PA171&dq=japan+no+americanism+culture+against++google&hl=en&ei=sizUTuDsF4HkrAf5kZm5Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=japan%20no%20americanism%20culture%20against%20%20google&f=false As Sarkozy has said “We won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is.” http://hnn.us/articles/123269.html History of France has a very protectionism culture, which help explain French opposition to Google. At the same time Google needs to re-think the approach of the information on “marketplace”. http://hnn.us/articles/123269.html In April 2005, France and German decided to build a Francisco-German search engine – Quaero. The program was launched as a Franco-German «Economic cooperation» task force, with goverments’ investment and support. The Quaero R&D programe spent about 200 million Euro over five years http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/418&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en. In the same time, Google spent over 7 billion US dollar on R&D around the world (BOOK). When France and Germany started to set up anti- Google project, they met with the very difficult and tedious task to becoming as powerful as Google. Aside from the financial resources, it was challenging to coordinate cross-border project. Germany Germany is threatened by Google in potentially losing its leading edge in IT technology. It was a strategic importance for Germany to lead and stay on top in IT and communications technology within its local domain and in Europe. Daniel Grierch, a German venture capitalist, started to protest against Google’s G-mail trademark as he said in interview "Google's behavior is very threatening, very aggressive and very unfaithful, and to me, it's very evil"(BOOK). According to Daniel Grierch, he acquired the G-mail name in 2000, four years before Google applied it. In 2007, Google lost court battle on G-mail trademark in German, instead adopted Google mail. A German court has ruled Google to stop using a free e-mail “G-mail” in Germany and to remove all Google’s G-mail references from its German services for users within the geographical area. http://news.cnet.com/Behind-Googles-German-courtroom-battle/2100-1032_3-6115056.html Then Germany quitted with Quaero web search project to start their own. In January 2007, Germany started to develop a Theseus project, an alternative search engine to directly compete with Google. The European Union gave Germany about 120 million Euro plus 90 million Euro from companies and institutes involved in research. Theseus joined 22 partner organizations such as Siemens, SAP, and Duetsche Thomson. It was clear said that the objective was to lead IT technology in Europe . According to minister’s Michaiel Glos’ statement, “With Theseus we want to improve Germany and Europe’s ability to compete and reach a top position in IT and communication technology”. Thesues is a semantic technology which focused on words, sounds, through unconventional methods to find desired materials. It is intended to be of lead Web 3.0. Japan Japan is threatened by Google because for many years, Japan lived with anti-Americanism culture and has been leading technological breakthroughs in Asia. Japan developed its own search engine for the Internet users, Grand voyage project with government investment of $885 million to oppose the U.S. increasingly popular search engine, Google. As reported at the Department of Information Policy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Fumihiro Kadzikava (Fumihiro Kajikawa), indicated that for this purpose, Japan established a research group with representatives from twenty universities and electronics companies. As Mr. Fumihiro said “The group will look into issues including whether Japan will start its own search engine” (Book). Japan has developed other projects comparable to the information Grand Voyage Project in the past. Usually these programs aimed to improve infrastructure to parallel the level of competitiveness or to pave the way for revitalization of selected regions or industries in Japan. http://www.tokyotronic.com/2008/01/japans-information-grand-voyage-project.html Although, this time, the main goal of the Japanese government is to win Google’s dominance within a country. Q3. Is the threat, from government–sponsored search engines, real or imaginary? After stressing Google’s dominance in the World Wide Web, each country decided to create their own competitive search engine. However, Quearo and Thesues’ anti Google projects were financed and supported from their respective governments, some aver that it looks more imaginary that real to protect self guardian cultural heritage from America. Google has very strong financial base for the years, and no one can reportedly beat them. From Exhibit II of the study case, Google was shown to spend over 7.7 billion from 2001 to 2008. The financial spending and knowledge base were significantly huge, compare with France, German and Japanese spending of $294, $257 and $885 million, respectively. What can Google do to secure the dominance in those countries? Every year, Google spend millions on R&D in efforts on Europe and around the world (over 7.7 billion from 2001-2008 in progressive order (BOOK)). The company invests the stated amounts to enhance their knowledge about diverse countries and to develop strategies for easier localization. To secure its dominance in those countries, Google needs to achieve better understanding of national culture and to manifest cultural sensitivity. According to Prof. Geert Hofstede, “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” http://books.google.com/books?id=QkeM8VU0ekAC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=Culture+is+more+often+a+source+of+conflict+than+of+synergy.%E2%80%A8+Cultural+differences+are+a+nuisance+at+best+and+often+a+%E2%80%A8disaster.”&source=bl&ots=7ZyQJjVDl2&sig=oxip950i9lqCj5uHCLBI5Ld26BE&hl=en&ei=_vXWTqHtOIfmrAeBlvnTDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Culture%20is%20more%20often%20a%20source%20of%20conflict%20than%20of%20synergy.%E2%80%A8%20Cultural%20differences%20are%20a%20nuisance%20at%20best%20and%20often%20a%20%E2%80%A8disaster.”&f=false In this regard, Google should continue more customized search engine technology with personalization and localization. When Google considered thinking in behalf of their users, by categorizing users according to work (with search history and location), they provide results that are most relevant to users’ behavior and interests. http://pestcontrolseo.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/googles-localization-and-personalization/ Further, Google should create benefits and opportunities for governments through technology and global market. The organizations should consider offering more services for users, such as mobile hand set search, car navigation technology, to name a few. They should determine what are main problems for internet users in a country and what government policies and regulations could deter them from applying their products and services through the internet. At most, Google must coordinate with various governments to protect users from accessing sites that would be detrimental to particularly sensitive segments (children, young adults from porn friendly websites). What can Google learn from those experiences to guide its entry strategy for other countries? With these different countries’ experiences, Google can realize that for every country, there is a need to adapt their business model according to the values, traditions and preferences dictated by different cultures. Google showed a perfect example of how a good company can adapt themselves to other cultures with continuous improvement, research and development, and compromised agreements on both sides. Conclusion Google’s example is very useful and applicable in today’s global organizations. Their experiences in France, Germany and Japan showed the need to adapt and adjust to the local culture and be culturally sensitive to the demands of the local population. Likewise, it is crucial to take into consideration any government regulations and laws that influence and affect operating in other countries. Diverse products and serves need to be adapted and adjusted to the diverse external factors that impinge of the environment as they influence and affect global organizations’ performance. As seen from Google’s experience and the leadership it was able to sustain and support on a global sphere, by focusing on their core competence and capitalizing on their strengths, they were able to address the threats in their external environment. Nowadays, R&D is crucial for businesses to enhance understanding diversities in culture and the disparities in countries’ needs. Google opened and spent a lot of financial resources for R&D centers to familiarize themselves with the unique and diverse needs of different peoples from other countries all over the world. The global leadership exemplified by Google proves that this strategy was instrumental in significantly improving their bottom line as clearly manifested by Google for the last 10 years. http://prezi.com/i7ysyy_jpzej/googles-country-experience-france-germany-japan-and-china/ Read More