Google's 10 Toughest Rivals
The biggest tech industry news story of the decade was undoubtedly the dramatic rise of Google. But will the search and online advertising juggernaut continue its dominance over the Internet economy in 2010? Not if the tech companies on our list can help it.
Wed, January 06, 2010
Network World — The biggest tech industry news story of the decade was undoubtedly the dramatic rise of Google. But will the search and online advertising juggernaut continue its dominance over the Internet economy in 2010? Not if the tech companies on our list can help it.
Until now, Google's (GOOG) biggest frenemies were the traditional media: newspapers, magazines and TV stations that create online content Google searches and that buy online advertising from Google. But as its portfolio has grown to encompass more than 150 products -- including free, hosted versions of popular software applications -- Google has attracted an array of tech industry competitors.
10 cool things you didn't know about Google l
Google's rivalry with tech firms is likely to get more intense in 2010. In Google, tech firms are up against the Internet's most-trafficked Web site and a money-making machine. Google is poised to rack up more than $23 billion in revenues in 2009, with margins over 30%. With its huge cash reserves, Google has money to buy innovative start-ups -- including recent purchases of On2, ReCAPTCHA and AdMob -- to keep itself at the cutting edge.
Here's our list of 10 tech vendors that are likely to shape up as Google's biggest rivals in the year ahead and the areas in which they will compete hardest:
1. Amazon
On track to rack up $22 billion or more in sales this year, Amazon has the financial wherewithal to battle Google in e-books and cloud computing. Indeed, Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos is a true frenemy of Google's, having been one of the search firm's initial investors back in 1998.
E-Books
Analysts agree that 2010 is shaping up to be the battle of the e-books.
Since 2002, Google has been scanning millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them into their online search service. Google's e-book efforts picked up momentum in 2009 as Google made 500,000 digital books available free to customers of the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which is due in January. In October, Google said it was opening up an e-book store called Google Editions that will allow customers to buy and read electronic books on any device with a browser.
With e-books, Google is taking on Amazon, whose Kindle e-book reader has a commanding lead in the market. The Kindle is the best-selling item at Amazon's Web site, which is now offering more than 360,000 e-books in its Kindle store. Amazon said in December that it would release a free Kindle book reading application for BlackBerry users, which will complement a similar application for PC users.
