preview

Case 5 Analysis – Google’s Country Experience: France, Germany, Japan

Good Essays

Background Summary Founded on September 4, 1998 Google quickly revolutionized the search engine and the Internet alike. Within two years of starting operations Google had become the largest single search engine in the world and began to dominate the market. As the World Wide Web (web) grew in popularity and became more and more a part of everyone’s daily life, Google too grew in popularity “because it could provide simple, fast, and relevant search results” (Deresky, 2011). The differentiating factor was Google’s “PageRank technology which displays results…by looking for keywords inside web pages, but also gauging the importance of a search result based on the number and popularity of other sites that linked to the page” (Deresky, …show more content…

Issues Facing Google Issue 1 – Google did not exercise due diligence before entering the global market and did not partner with a local entity. The lack of research and development caused a major failure for Google’s entrance to France, Germany and Japan. Not partnering with a local entity led to unsuccessful bridging to cultural barriers which led to many mistakes. Starting with France, Google began growing rapidly by facilitating a direct point of contact to the French businesses. Google started targeting by language, by country and by keyword in its advertising programs. Soon, Google became the dominant search engine in France and offered services in regional French dialects. One of the biggest mistakes Google made was doing research about its competitors and not preparing itself for any downfalls. As the case explains,”Europe’s patchwork of language and cultures was seen as an advantage by companies, seeking to break into the search market to complete with Google, by entering demand for locally focused search”. The French and German governments reacted with plans to developing their country-specific search engines. The French and German Governments put for the Quaero plan, which was endorsed by President Chirac and the German chancellor Gerhard Schroder, and “would be superior to existing search engine technology” (Deresky, 2011). The lack of research before

Get Access