Google’s search dominance
Google was founded ten years ago by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University students who believed that their search algorithm and the speed of its service were good enough to compete in the growing Internet search market.
After its launch the search engine quickly gained favour among Internet users and grew to become the most popular search portal around. The company also grew very fast financially – from its initial investment of a mere US$1.1 million in 1998 to a current market cap in the region of $150 billion.
Google currently employs around 20 000 full time staff members and has offices around the globe. Google recently also established an office in South Africa, headed up by ex-Novell MD, Stafford Masie.
Google.co.za has shown very strong growth in the South African market, dwarfing other local search engines such as Ananzi and Aardvark. According to the latest Online Publishers Association (OPA) statistics, Ananzi currently attracts 221 436 unique monthly visitors, down from 314 132 a year ago.
Aardvark also shows a decline in unique monthly visitors. In June 2008 the Telkom-owned search engine received 88 774 unique monthly visitors, down from 106 102 during the same period in 2007.
Google on the other hand is gaining momentum in South Africa, capitalising from the strong broadband growth and the fact that more South Africans are using their mobile phones to surf the Internet.
Despite the strong broadband growth in South Africa, mobile remains the leading telecommunications medium in the country. South Africa’s current broadband penetration rate is sitting at around 2%, multiple times lower than the country’s mobile penetration rate. Masie says that 78% of all people with mobile phones in South Africa don’t have personal computers, and that 85% of this “no-PC” group will never own a PC.
According to Masie, a sixth of all Internet searches in South Africa come from mobile devices, the highest ratio in the world. To ensure that it leads in the mobile search market Google SA launched its universal search for mobile in January 2008 – only the fourth country in the world to get this service.
Its strong mobile focus does, however, not mean it is lagging on the desktop side of things. Google.co.za remains the most popular website among the local online community, edging out rivals such as Facebook, Yahoo and Windows Live.
Google’s video sharing service, YouTube, also features high on the list of top local websites.
With very deep pockets, cutting edge technology and a growing local presence Google looks set to change the local Internet and online advertising market. It will be near impossible for other search brands such as Ananzi and Aardvark to steal market share away from Google and partnerships may be the best way to ensure survival – something which started happening recently.
Local online publishers and advertising agencies have also improved their ties with the search giant, strengthening Google’s grip on the growing online market in South Africa.
Online and mobile advertising revenue in South Africa is set to show very strong growth over the next few years, and the smart money will be on Google to capture a large chunk of this marketing spend.
And with innovative new advertising services such as location-based advertising on its mapping and Google earth platforms – which will be extending its coverage of South Africa – and in-video YouTube marketing, it may even grow this market and convince more traditional advertising agencies to spend more money online than before.
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