Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is the largest search provider on the entire internet. It handles more advertising than any other company in the world and is extending its reach into multiple areas still to this day, including several disruptive online areas. Yet, the behemoth still thinks it's not that big in the grand scheme of things. Do you agree?Google is correct in that the competition is only a click away. Google's first-mover advantage and unbelievable brand equity are hard to calculate, yet it is worried about the competition. It shouldn't be. The company creates products that are groundbreaking in many instances, and ones which customers love to use. That is its competitive advantage. Although the competition is only a click away, not even the world's largest software company has figured out to beat it in any way, shape or form yet (and may not ever).
The line between monopoly and doing good business can sometimes be a thin one. Still -- does anyone feel forced to use Google? People use it because it works -- and works well. However, with so much power comes scrutiny, and Google is under the microscope now more than ever. The pressure won't let up any time soon, and at the same time a company created in a garage could usurp Google in a decade, if history holds.
Google senior competition counsel Dana Wagner states that "Competition is a click away ... we are in an industry that is subject to disruption and we can't take anything for granted." This is true, but once a position of extreme power is held, the competition is sometimes rendered helpless. That's not monopoly -- that's business.
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