Is Google a monopoly?
A topic discussed in all business classes is monopolies. The textbook definition of monopoly is the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service. Everyone has passed judgments on businesses such as Wal-Mart calling them a monopoly. But when it gets down to the “nitty gritty”, Wal-Mart has competitors and the government purposely placed policies so that our economic system can operate free of monopolies.
A semi-recent article, which just made the top page on reddit, discusses how the Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, thinks that Google is almost a monopoly. Being a huge Google fan I tried to immediately dismiss this ridiculous accusation. I then realized in the marketing field you have to step back and take a look at things from an unbiased standpoint.
So, let’s take a step back and examine the rest of the article before we pass judgment.
“(Google) has this incredible, amazing, dare I say monopoly that we are the only person left on the planet trying to compete with” says Ballmer. When we take a look at the facts Google’s search engine accounts for 67% of search share in the US and Bing is behind them at 17.9%. Obviously number wise Google takes the majority but seeing as how they have competitors, small or large, they do not have a monopoly in the search engine area.
So for search engines we have no monopoly.
Another accusation made by Ballmer is that, “…if we have exactly the same quality of algorithms, but a lot less scale in search advertising, we will get less revenue per search… which means they have more money to pay for distribution on Samsung devices…”. According to a quick search on mobile operating system market shares, Android is still heavily competing against Apple iOS with Windows (owned by Microsoft) close behind.
In the cell phone department Google again doesn’t have a monopoly.
The most recent development by Google is why I personally believe Microsoft is “shaking in their boots”. Google has acquired QuickOffice, an app for iOS and Android that has a free version where you’re able to create and edit documents. Until now Microsoft hasn’t created a standalone version of Office for phones and tablets and Google has now taken the bait. Especially that Google is offering this app for free I think it’s something that Microsoft should be worried about.
All in all, even after looking at the facts Google doesn’t have a monopoly. But just like all press it’s in the eyes of the beholder. I think this just proves that there is still heavy competition in the market and lucky for the consumer, where there is competition the consumer always wins.
Until next time...
Sites Used
http://techland.time.com/2013/09/20/googles-quickoffice-document-editor-is-now-free-on-ios-and-android/
http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/20/4751516/ballmer-calls-google-a-monopoly
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1mrsux/ballmer_calls_google_a_monopoly_that_authorities/