According to the list FT Global 500 from the Financial Times, Google is worldwide on position 39 from the companies listed in the stock exchange (Financial Times, 2009). Google was founded in 1998 by the software engineers Larry Page and Sergei Brin. Nowadays, only 12 years later, it has grown to one of the greatest international companies which has a huge influence on the daily life in industrial nations. Furthermore with 66 billion US-Dollars Google is the most valuable brand in the world. They started with a search engine which has pushed the former competition like AltaVista out of business. Read more…
Google’s main brands in a McKinsey / GE Matrix
2. Google’s main brand / McKinsey GE Matrix
2.1 Search Engine
The heart of Google is still the search engine. It started in 1998 and nowadays it has a market share of almost 90% in Europe and about 60% in the USA. The main competitions of this search engine are Yahoo and Microsoft Bing. Yahoo has 21% of market share in the USA and 3% in Europe. Bing has 10% in the USA and 3% in Europe as well. There are many other small search engines which either use the database of one of the three market leaders or have a market share of less than 1%. Read more…
Google’s main brands in a McKinsey / GE Matrix
3. Portfolio analysis via matrices in the 21st century
3.1 Why portfolio analysis?
Tools like the McKinsey model or the Boston Consulting Group model are created to make things easier. Managers use them to structure the brands of a company in order to make decisions about whether it is worth investing in those products or if it is better to withdraw them. But they always do this carefully with an analytical mind. One can say that these models are only the starting point for further research. It is useful to compare all brands within the business with each other to see the strengths and weaknesses of the company. A problem within portfolio models is that the results are never objective and can be manipulated. Who defines for example whether a market is attractive? Different managers might have different opinions whether a brand is still a “cash cow” or already a “dog”. The results are very vague and always need many other analytics (Doyle and Stern, 2006, p.107-113). Read more…
Google’s main brands in a McKinsey / GE Matrix
4. Conclusion
McKinsey matrix was created for further specifications of the BCG matrix. There are fewer limitations, so the overview of the brand portfolio is better. But nevertheless there are still limitations which you can only avoid by more specifications. But this is exactly the contradiction. Portfolio analysis is developed to make things easier, with the result that the analysis is inexact and needs more research (Doyle and Stern, 2006, p.110). Read more…