While having an attempt to do the right things only, Google implements this strategy in developing its business as well. At first, this task seems exaggerated, as the company deals with the information gathered from all over the world in order to make it well-organized and generally accessible. It is a well-known fact that what is useful for one, may be harmful to others. Still, the Google’s corporate profile shows that its goals and aims are reasonably good.
A brief history of the corporation illustrates the idea that common good may become one’s way to success. According to the information published on the corporation’s website, Google was founded in 1996 by two Ph.D. students and was already incorporated as a company in two years (“From the garage to the Googleplex”, n.d.). On their way to a multinational technology company, Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved from a web search engine simply based on PageRank, to a platform for endless online products (“Google: revenue worldwide 2002 – 2016”, n.d.). In 2004, the initial public offering was issued, which means that the company was transformed into a public one and its shares were sold to investors. Nowadays, Page and Brin own only 14% of Google’s shares and control almost 56% of the stockholder voting power (“From the garage to the Googleplex”, n.d.). Still, the corporate values of the company remain unchanged. Sundar Pichai, who is the current CEO of Google, does his best in order to keep the search of information on its initially high level.
As a result of constant development, the corporation owns offices in more than 50 countries of the world, with more than 50 000 employees. Also, in addition to these numbers, Google creates hundreds of products used by billions of people across the globe (“From the garage to the Googleplex”, n.d.). Moreover, not all the products are Internet-related. According to the information published by Statista, the alternative projects of Google include mobile devices (which is Nexus), Google Glass, driverless cars, and even an investment in a solar power plant (“Google: revenue worldwide 2002 – 2016”, n.d.). Such an approach to business is a strategy of multidimensional development, as the company promotes its values to other branches of economy. While producing mobile operating systems, devices, services, applications, and other products which have already become an integral part of people’s everyday life, the company still pays much attention to the benefits achieved from online advertising.
Most services and products that Google delivers to its average users are free of charge. Therefore, the question of how does the company make money seems obvious. McFarlane (2012) tries to find the answer to this question in his article written for Investopedia. According to the author, Google derives 96% of its revenues from online advertising on Google network websites, and, moreover, “about 70% of its advertising revenues come from AdWords, the rest from AdSense” (McFarlane, 2012). AdWords and AdSense are designed in a way that allows them to charge the customers based on the aggregate number of clicks their advertisements produce.
Also, other revenues are generated via product licensing, digital content and mobile apps (“Google: revenue worldwide 2002 – 2016”, n.d.). In his article, McFarlane (2012) describes Google business model as a revolutionary one. In comparison to the traditional advertising, Google lets the businessmen “pay per impression”, which means that it charges the company each time the user accesses a certain page (McFarlane, 2012). Although the businessmen do not pay much for a single click, the whole strategy is based on the idea of an auction. As a result, the sellers are motivated to create a qualitative offer, whereas Google just gathers new information.
The effectiveness of such a strategy is visible, as there are numerous data and statistics devoted to this issue. In particular, Statista presents the worldwide revenue of Google from 2002 to 2016 through the simple and clear diagram. A single glance would be enough to understand that the company is highly profitable. In particular, in 2016, the amount of Google’s revenue reaches up to 89.5 billion US dollars (“Google: revenue worldwide 2002 – 2016”, n.d.). In addition, the article states that Google was at the first place for its revenue among the internet companies in 2015 (“Google: revenue worldwide 2002 – 2016”, n.d.).
Of course, such a prominent company could not avoid certain significant challenges. First of all, Google faces problems connected with tax payments. It is clear that with a revenue mentioned above, it would be necessary to pay huge taxes. Still, the corporation tax avoiding strategies are disputable. Also, the unusual compensation system implemented for the Google’s early employees gave them an ability to refuse from further participation in the company’s life, which means that Google is currently losing its employees (Barr, 2017). Finally, by its nature, Google uses strategies that are close to the violation of privacy and intellectual property, as well as to the manipulation of the search results.
On the other hand, the general spirit of the company helps it to fulfill even the most challenging accomplishments. For example, at the end of 2016, Google declared that starting from 2017 it will power all of its data centers and offices from 100% renewable energy (Hölzle, 2016). In addition, there is a program titled “The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities” (n.d.), which was created in order to improve the world and to make it accessible for the people with disabilities. Also, the company pays much attention to machine learning, as it aims to make computers smarter. In such a way, the company is actually the leader of the world progress.
In conclusion, it is necessary to admit that modern world requires new strategies both in business and development. The current corporate profile shows that Google is a company which is ready to face all the challenges and to create a new environment through the high technologies and innovations.
