Google admits its fear of the ‘next Google’.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BANGALORE: The executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt said that the California based search engine giant now has a new competitor – the world’s largest internet retailer Amazon.
Google, a company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996, started off as an experimental project. Through the years Google faced tough challenges from rival companies like Yahoo! Search and Bing, but the technically advanced algorithm of Google always came out as the winner.
Amazon, a company that has never delved into the search engine market, is now causing worries for Google said Schmidt during a speech in Berlin, Germany.
“Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon,†he said.
Amazon is currently the world’s largest online retailer and has made improvements in its functioning, moving ahead of Yahoo Inc and Bing to become the No.1 competitor of Google. Since the last few years, Amazon has been expanding its markets to developing countries; India being one of the latest additions. With increasing presence across the world, delivering products ranging from cosmetics to electronics, Amazon has prompted people to do product searches directly on its site rather than using Google.
Schmidt said, “People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon.â€
Google has been under fire in the European Union after a series of anti-trust complaints lodged against the company.
In the month of February, Google avoided paying a billion dollar fine as it agreed to give legitimate visibility to rival search engines such as Microsoft and Bing in its Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
“People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon,” he said.
According to Mr. Schmidt, Amazon is still very much an online store but they have succeeded in answering queries of people through its product listing, just like Google search.
Earlier The American Bazaar had reported about Amazon’s acquisition of live-streaming gaming network Twitch. This was the biggest acquisition of Amazon since its inception 20 years ago. There were reports that Google too had approached Twitch for a deal, but the two companies failed to close it.
Even as Google holds 90% of the search engine market, Schmidt shared his concern about an unknown rival who could come up with the “next Googleâ€. He said “Someone, somewhere in a garage is gunning for us. I know, because not long ago we were in that garage. Change comes from where you least expect it.â€