Mobile Advertising

The business of encouraging people to buy products and services using the mobile channel as the medium to deliver the advertisement message
— Internet Message Access Protocol

Mobile advertising is an innovative and a customer-centric approach to reach promising customers. It includes advertising in the form of Short Message Service (SMS), mobile alerts, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), mobile games and videos. Mobile advertising can be divided into two main categories: Mobile Push Advertising and Mobile Pull Advertising. Mobile Push Advertising, can be in form of solicited or unsolicited advertising News alerts, job alerts and cricket score alerts are a few examples in this category. Mobile Pull Advertising, on the other hand, is defined as advertising when users request for the services from the service-provider for instance daily horoscope.

Mobile advertising is the latest buzz in the field of advertising, since it is a cost-effective way to promote and inform the target customers. With the advent of new media, mobile advertising has become one of the most demanding and integral part of marketing mix.

Benefits of Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising is cost-effective and offers flexibility to inform target group as and when required. In the case of mobile advertising the advertising message can be personalized with respect to Target Audience. The mobile advertising is interactive in nature and advertiser gets feedback immediately. Though mobile advertising offers flexibility to contact target group as and when required. It also gives option of permission-based advertising, which is also governed by telecom rules and regulations. The mobile advertising is still not brand creator but it is more helpful in brand recall and brand interactivity. The benefits of mobile advertising include: flexibility of content, speed of reach.

Limitations of Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising has limited message content. It is mostly driven by key words and target audiences in most of the cases take mobile advertisements casually. Moreover it still has very limited reach as compared to other conventional tools of advertising. The visual display is not as impressive as TV advertising. Though the advertiser has more control on the mobile advertising but still cant calculate ROI of advertising more accurately. Most importantly, mobile advertising is often criticized for intrusion of target audience privacy.

Guidelines for Mobile Advertising
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published guidelines for mobile advertising. These guidelines are designed specifically for the Asia-Pacific region to encourage the use of mobiles for advertising-related purposes as well as its acceptance by marketers and consumers.

As of now it is not in practice. There are companies, and advertisers violating the defined guidelines but we are moving in the direction where the advertising world will take it seriously.

Conclusion
Mobile Advertising is at infant stage of the life cycle. The share of advertising spend on mobile advertising is minimal but when advertising spend is seen from the lenses of life cycle it is a good start.

Mobile Advertisement to touch INR 500 crore in 5 years

Reliance Communications, is pioneer of mobile advertising in the country, has effectively offered mobile advertising solutions for more than 20 clients over the past four years. In my understanding, the mobile advertising, started with LG during World Cup Cricket in 2003. Reliance Communications has also handled Cadbury’s, Coke, Maruti, Hyundai, ICICI, Kotak and HDFC. The mobile advertising in India is at nascent stage it is roughly INR 40 crore industry but advertisers in India are looking to cash in on the mobile advertising as potential tool of advertising. Experts predicts that advertising spend on this medium is expected to jump more than ten to twelve-folds to touch a size of INR 500 crore in next five years.

Mobile advertising can attract advertising spends from integration with below-the-line budgets, retail budgets and the digital budget. The bottleneck, however, is the unreasonable cost of Internet on mobile and also disproportionate sharing of revenue between telecom service providers and advertisers. The mobile advertising is demanding even playing field from internet and mobile providers. The operators, at present, are acting as a gatekeeper and commands control over the revenue distribution. Currently mobile advertising revenue is split at 70:30 ratio between operators and the companies, which gives very little scope for the growth of the mobile advertisers. Moreover, the operators have to stop acting as gatekeepers to the Internet and allow consumers to access content and services on the Internet easily and cheaply, using their mobile devices.

The mobile advertising market which is currently valued at INR 40 crore can grow more than nearly twelve times provided the telecom companies offer open Internet access at low rates along with standardization of regulations.

Reference: http://www.business-standard.com, Mobile ads to touch Rs 500 cr in 5 yrs: Experts, June 22, 2008.

Mobile Advertising

The business of encouraging people to buy products and services using the mobile channel as the medium to deliver the advertisement message
                                                                                               — Internet Message Access Protocol

Mobile advertising is an innovative and a customer-centric approach to reach promising customers. It includes advertising in the form of Short Message Service (SMS), mobile alerts, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), mobile games and videos. Mobile advertising can be divided into two main categories: Mobile Push Advertising and Mobile Pull Advertising. Mobile Push Advertising, can be in form of solicited or unsolicited advertising News alerts, job alerts and cricket score alerts are a few examples in this category. Mobile Pull Advertising, on the other hand, is defined as advertising when users request for the services from the service-provider for instance daily horoscope.

Mobile advertising is the latest buzz in the field of advertising, since it is a cost-effective way to promote and inform the target customers. With the advent of new media, mobile advertising has become one of the most demanding and integral part of marketing mix.

Benefits of Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising is cost-effective and offers flexibility to inform target group as and when required. In the case of mobile advertising the advertising message can be personalized with respect to Target Audience. The mobile advertising is interactive in nature and advertiser gets feedback immediately. Though mobile advertising offers flexibility to contact target group as and when required. It also gives option of permission-based advertising, which is also governed by telecom rules and regulations. The mobile advertising is still not brand creator but it is more helpful in brand recall and brand interactivity. The benefits of mobile advertising include: flexibility of content, speed of reach.

Limitations of Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising has limited message content. It is mostly driven by key words and target audiences in most of the cases take mobile advertisements casually. Moreover it still has very limited reach as compared to other conventional tools of advertising. The visual display is not as impressive as TV advertising. Though the advertiser has more control on the mobile advertising but still cant calculate ROI of advertising more accurately. Most importantly, mobile advertising is often criticized for intrusion of target audience privacy.

Guidelines for Mobile Advertising
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published guidelines for mobile advertising. These guidelines are designed specifically for the Asia-Pacific region to encourage the use of mobiles for advertising-related purposes as well as its acceptance by marketers and consumers.

As of now it is not in practice. There are companies, and advertisers violating the defined guidelines but we are moving in the direction where the advertising world will take it seriously.

Conclusion
Mobile Advertising is at infant stage of the life cycle. The share of advertising spend on mobile advertising is minimal but when advertising spend is seen from the lenses of life cycle it is a good start.

No to Women Boss – ASSOCHAM

Its official now, we prefer male boss over a female boss. ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India) recently concluded survey – “Preference of Bosses in Emerging Corporate Culture” which declares that more than 68% men and women prefer male bosses at their work.The survey result which was based on the 2,500 executives feedback suggest that about 68 percent showed preference for male bosses saying male bosses give more operational freedom at work and are faster in decision-making, while the remaining 32 percent did not have any preference. More interestingly, of the 68 percent executives who voted for male bosses, two-thirds were female. The respondents argued that women approach work with more emotion than men. Also, motherhood and family responsibilities keep them from accomplishing assigned work leading to discontentment among the juniors.The study also shows that women in the workplace do not just prefer male bosses over female bosses; they also feel more comfortable with male co-workers. Men choices were more evenly split, with 17 percent choosing male co-workers and 16 percent choosing female co-workers.The survey, which comprised 67 per cent women and 33 per cent men, also found out :Women have to work twice as hard to prove themselves.Women picked a male boss rather than a female boss,More men would rather work for men than women; 50 percent of men chose a male boss and 12 percent picked a female bossMost women, 77 percent, agree that it is still difficult for women to get ahead in the workplace; only 43 percent of men feels that way.A majority of women, 56 percent, feel that at one time or another they have been disadvantaged in the workplace because of their gender, while 25 percent of men feel the same way.The better the bosses, the longer the stability factor is yet another key findings of the survey. On working with strict bosses, majority of the executives said they would opt for an early exist as today there are immense opportunities available

Reference: http://www.assocham.org, Male Bosses in Preference, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Amazon: Earth’s Biggest Selection TM

Early 1994, Internet usage was growing at a phenomenal rate of 2300 percent per month. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, recalls that he felt need of doing something immediately. When something is growing that fast, every second counts.
Bezos quit his lucrative job at DE Shaw to start an online venture. His initial plan was to sell a low priced product, which customer would not hesitate to purchase online. After weighting several factors, he decided to concentrate on books.
“unless you could create something with huge value proposition for customer, it would be easier for the customer to do it old way.” Books, with low price and more than three million titles worldwide, seems to be an ideal product for selling online. Mail order book catalogs were not feasible, as they would have to carry thousands of titles, making them very bulky and expensive to mail. On the other hand, the Internet could provide such information economically and efficiently.
In June 1995, Amazon.com Books Inc. commenced its operations. The name Amazon drew inspiration from largest river in the world, signals Bezos’ clear intention to develop the biggest bookstore in the world. The name Amazon is short to remember, it captures the spirit of the site, and conveys its vast size and offering. Infact, Bezos had chosen the name Amazon also because it short, simple and easy to remember. Moreover it also captures the spirit of the site. He also wanted the same to start with letter A so that it appear at top of the search engine list.
Brand building initiatives
Online, the balance of power shifts away from company and goes towards the customer. Our strength is that we have not been competitor obsessed.
–Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com
Bezos identified it very early that customer is the king. He proposed customer value proposition for the Amazon which is evident from the initiatives at Amazon. Amazon provide value added features to increase the ease of shopping viz. product search, gift click, wish lists, gift reminders, and ‘Amazon.com Anywhere’ which support access from wireless device. Amazon has successfully created one-to-one relationships with its customers by customizing features and service based on customer purchase history. It has also added community feeling among customers by soliciting and posting readers’ comments on book displays. Amazon also introduced Amazon.com discussion board to further enhance the community feeling. It allows customer to share information on their topic of interest. Amazon Associate program is help develop better customer interaction. The customer interaction is reinforced with the personalized communication model. Customer centricity is evident from all online and offline activities of the Amazon.
Amazon’s promotion program can be divided into three distinct phase. It started with word-of-mouth publicity among online communities. Second phase was beginning of advertising in online, print media and outdoors. Third phase of promotional program started with inauguration of Associates Program in 1996. The associate program offers other website to display the Amazon.com hot-link and offer specific books of interest to their visitors. Amazon has developed alliance and partnerships with high traffic web portals and sites viz. America Online, Yahoo!, Geocity, Alta Vista, Excite, Prodigy etc. The associates program has been phenomenally successful, attracting member sites of all size. Amazon has also used viral marketing technique through customer reviews, free e-Cards, and gift certificates.
Changing Focus
Amazon is an early mover on the internet and the first mover on the online bookselling. This has helped it build a strong brand at relatively low cost. Thanks to extensive hype and coverage across media.
The online book company received strong criticism when it started expanding its product line. Marketers and academicians across geography said that Amazon is diluting the value of its association with books. A report in time magazine mentioned: “it’s incredibly risky. How elastic is the Amazon brand name? how much can you stretch it until it simply explodes and become meaningless to consumer? And how long can the money hold out? Bezos has alreadt burned through a bank’s worth of ash with no sign of slowing down. If any thing he is upping the ante – according to estimate, the company’s net loss could be $350 million in this year (2000) alone.” Bezos, however felt otherwise: “No, see we are not book company. We are not Music Company. We are not Vedio Company. We are not Auction Company. We are customer company.” He started line extension with some other valid logic – brand to certain degree is quick-drying cement. When they are young, they’re stretchable and plaint, but over time they become more and more associated with a particular thing and hart to stretch. His views were absolutely right which was evident from Amazon music store initiative. June 1998, Amazon unveiled a music store, which within six month propelled Amazon to one of the leading online music retailer.
Conclusion
Amazon has successfully built a strong brand and loyal customer base.

CDNOW (Amazon.com – buy an old story)

Jason Olin Knew there had to be better way to buy music– phill Carpenter

Leading music store CDNOW was one of the most popular shopping store sites since 1994. It had mammoth selection of music-related products. It boosted of excellent coverage of music reviews, cover art, daily music news, features, guide to music genres, and exclusive interviews. It also involved in digital distribution of music. CDNOW was the first site to offer the sale of music downloads. Armed with successful implementation of innovative ideas, CDNOW aims to make every visit to the site a valuable and rewarding experience.The CDNOW was very easy to navigate and quick to load. Strong content alliances, music reviews, cover art, daily music news etc. had made the content of the site attractive and useful. It had made the process easier for customers to explore new music and make informed purchase decision. It also offered customer to customize site as well as music CD as per user performance. At CDNOW, customer had option to maintain and Address book online making it easier to send music to friends and family this innovative technique of viral marketing helped strengthen loyalty and deepen customers’ commitment with brand. It developed strong community feeling among the users through Jazz club or classic club. It reaches out to its customers with personalized e-mails from Jason Olim and e-mail newsletters informing customers of news and releases relevant to the preference.
CDNOW was able to maintain its first mover advantage. It constantly added new functionality to the site and was very innovative in its offering. It ensured that its activity reinforces customer commitment and promises offered to customers. it was one of the first website to develop multifaceted, integrated communication strategy. It used online advertising, word-of-mouth communication and public relation to attract customers. Founders of CDNOW strongly believed that word-of-mouth powerfully influence online purchase decision.
The company began its marketing effort focusing on the web admirers in the early days of the business. It did not use any traditional marketing tools in the beginning of the venture but viewed online advertising as the way of both generating sales and building awareness it also appoint i-traffic as its online ad agency. On the one hand it had banner ads on the major internet content and service providers including, CNN interactive, AOL and on the other hand it had banners place on the more specific music-related sites like Billboard. It also stuck exclusive alliance with high traffic companies like AOL Yahoo!, Excite. It helped CDNOW generate both traffic and visibility.
CDNOW since inception had made public relation one of the highest priority tool in the brand building exercise. Mario Zoda, the public relation manager designed most of the public relation programs at CDNOW. They also realized very early that in the high-tech business, word-of-mouth is in particular is very important tool as it influences the purchase decision. Public relation helped generate word-of-mouth communication and influenced sales. They banked on the story how CDNOW was founded in the basement by two twin brothers with little money reflected the ‘American Dream’. The story helped them as Americans started associated themselves with the CDNOW venture which helped increase business.
CDNOW with development of the internet venture and competition realized that to build brand and grab share, it has to invest substantially on the traditional tools of marketing. It first turned to tool such as TV and radio. It also examined with print advertising in publication like Rolling Stone, spin, and variety.
Conclusion
CDNOW exploited its early-mover advantage and keeps ahead of competition. They developed a detailed understanding of its customers’ need that has enabled the company to create better product and effective market campaigns. CDNOW had personalized its product offering which was managed by the capable service team. The team was instrumental in building a reputation of excellence that is core factor of a successful Internet brand. CDNOW was one of the first website which understood the economics of online business. it reflected in its business model and media communication strategy.
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Once a leading music store, CDNOW was one of the most popular shopping stores since 1994. It was founded in February 1994 by twin brothers Jason Olim and Matthew Olim of Ambler, Pennsylvania. In the early days CDNOW was a telnet (text-only) service which was re launched in September 1994. In 2000, CDNOW was bought by Bertelsmann. In late 2002 Amazon.com purchased the rights to CDNOW from Bertelsmann and began operating the CDNOW web site. Although the CDNOW brand is still visible by accessing the web site at www.cdnow.com, it immediately redirects to www.amazon.com.

Yahoo! built on Acquisitions

Yahoo! was founded by Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January of 1994 and incorporated on March 1, 1995.
Yahoo provides a range of products and services including a web portal, a search engine, Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail. It has grown through continuous innovation and acquisitions. Here is the list of acquisitions which helped Yahoo! grow.

1997Net Controls, Web search engine which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! SearchFour11, Web-based email which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Mail

1998Classic Games, Online game, which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GamesSportasy , Fantasy sport, which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Fantasy SportsViaweb ,Web application which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! StoreWebcal , Calendaring software which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo CalendarYoyodyne,Direct marketing which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search MarketingHyperparallel, Data analysis which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search

1999Log-Me-On, Digital identity which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo!Broadcast.com, Internet radio which helped Yahoo develop LAUNCHcastEncompass, Internet service provider which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo!GeoCities , Web hosting service which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GeoCitiesOnline Anywhere , Content delivery network which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! TV

2000Arthas.com, E-commerce payment systems which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! StoreMyQuest , Internet service provider which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo!eGroups , Electronic mailing list which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GroupsKimo, Web portal which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo!

2001Sold.com, Online auction tools which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! ShoppingLAUNCH Media , Online music store which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Music

2002Hotjobs.com , Job search engine which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! HotJobsInktomi Corporation , Internet service provider which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search

2003Overture Services, Inc., Search engine marketing which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search Marketing

20043721 Internet Assistant , Browser Helper Object which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! AssistantKelkoo, Price comparison service which helped Yahoo develop KelkooOddpost , Web-based email which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MailMusicmatch Jukebox , Audio player which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MusicThe All-Seeing Eye, Game server browser which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GamesStata Labs, Web-based email which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MailWUF Networks, Mobile media which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Mobile

2005Verdisoft, Computer software which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MobileStadeon , Online game which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GamesLudicorp, Image hosting service which helped Yahoo develop FlickrTeRespondo , Advertising network which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search MarketingDialpad, Voice over Internet Protocol which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Voiceblo.gs, Weblog software which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! 360°Konfabulator , Widget engine which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! WidgetsUpcoming.org, Calendaring software which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! LocalWhereonearth, Web mapping which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Mapsdel.icio.us, Social bookmarking which helped Yahoo develop del.icio.us

2006Webjay, Online music store which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MusicSearchFox, Web search engine which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! SearchMeedio, Digital video recorder which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! GoJumpcut.com, Online video editing which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! VideoAdInterax, Online advertising which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search MarketingBix.com , Social media which helped Yahoo develop BixKenet Works, Mobile software which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! MobileWretch, Virtual community which helped Yahoo develop Wretch

2007MyBlogLog, Social network service which helped Yahoo develop MyBlogLogRight Media, Online advertising which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search MarketingRivals.com, College football which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! SportsBlueLithium, Advertising network which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! Search MarketingBuzzTracker, News site which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! NewsZimbra, Collaborative software which helped Yahoo develop Zimbra

2008FoxyTunes, Browser extension which helped Yahoo develop FoxyTunesMaven Networks , Video on demand which helped Yahoo develop Yahoo! VideoInquisitor, Browser extension which helped Yahoo develop Inquisitor

The growth of the Yahoo is function of acquisition or innovation or innovation backed by acquisition is matter of debate.

Yahoo! built out of Alliances, Acquisitions (and looking for Merger)

In 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo, the two young PhD computer science students from the Stanford University, started compiling list of their favorite websites as a hobby. They also listed them on websites. They developed Web-searching software which helped in web search and indexing sites. They categorized and subcategorized their websites for better search result. The website in the early days was categorized under Art, Business, Computers, Economy, and Education and also subcategorized each of the categories soon became too cumbersome, as the number of websites in their list increased. Jerry Yang and David Filo named the search list Yahoo.
By January 1995, Yahoo, had 10,000 websites and was getting one million hits a day. However, the indexing was still done by humans. During the same time, Yahoo had to be moved out of the Stanford University server where it was hosted.
By this time, Yahoo had gained fame and respect and venture capitalists showed interests in investing in Yahoo against a pie of Yahoo. The industry had recognized the potential of Yahoo and AOL wanted to buy Yahoo for $2 million. However, both Yang and Filo declined the offer. The media covered these events in detail which helped Yahoo gain visibility. The feature story in Newsweek during that time coined the expression ‘did a Yahoo.’ This coinage was later modified to become the company’s famous slogan ‘Do You Yahoo!?’
LaunchIn March 1995, Yang, Filo and Tim Brady (a friend of Yang) wrote the business plan for Yahoo. The business plan put forth the vision of Yahoo; to become the ‘TV Guide of the Internet.’ The business plan also focused on advertisers to help generate its revenues, without charging any fees from the users.
The plan also stressed the importance of Yahoo’s independence, editorial impartiality, brand equity and free service for the end users. The business plan also listed that the second-biggest source of income should be through licensing deals.The business plan announced Filo as president and CEO, and Yang as chairman and CFO.
In March 1995, Yahoo was incorporated and in April the company got its first $1 mn venture funding from Sequoia Capital. As soon as venture funding was received, the founders put an interim management in place at Yahoo. Yahoo launched its website in early August 1995.
Yahoo Expansion
In April 1996, Yahoo launched Yahoo Japan as a joint venture with Softbank, with Yahoo and Softbank owning 40% and 60% respectively. However, in all other cases it always held the majority stake. In Europe, Yahoo launched as Yahoo Europe in United Kingdom, Germany and France along with rest of Western Europe with Ziff Davis Yahoo held 70% of the equity stake while Ziff Davis held only 30%.
Yahoo forged strategic alliances with different companies like Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nabisco, Pepsi, Microsoft, and Real Networks. To improve its pure search capability, Yahoo licensed AltaVista’s search engine and to broaden its distribution, Yahoo forged deals with Compaq and Gateway which allowed Yahoo to put its button on the desktops of Compaq and Gateway PCs. However, Yahoo and MTV alliance to create, a music search engine failed soon after its creation.
Yahoo initially started as a search engine, but with alliances and joint ventures it slowly developed as a portal. Mostly growth happened through acquisitions. Some of the companies acquired by Yahoo were Flickr, Konfabulator, Upcoming.org, Del.icio.us, and Webjay. The new Yahoo search engine was built on the acquired technology from Inktomi and Overture. The new search engine created the best search technology for consumers and an effective advertising platform for the advertisers. Yahoo also launched Yahoo 360, a social networking service.
In long run, Yahoo has become a victim of success. The company had adopted the model of being a one-stop portal, offering all the services on its web site. Yahoo’s homepage had links to a host of products and services like e-mail, music, mobile, small business services, health, finance, games, movies, personals, etc.
Acquired Companies
2002 Hotjobs, Inktomi2003 Overture,2004 3721 Internet Assistant, Kelkoo, Oddpost, The All-Seeing Eye, Music Match, Stata Labs Inc, WUF Networks2005 Verdisoft, Ludicorp Research, (Flickr), Stadeon, TeRespondo, Dialpad2005 blo.gs, Konfabulator, Alibaba, Upcoming.org, Whereonearth, del.icio.us2006 Searchfox, Meedio, Gmarket, Jumpcut.com, Adlnterax, Right Media, Kenet Works, Bix.com, Wretch
Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures
During the same time, Yahoo initiated strategic partnerships. Yang’s objective of strategic partnerships was, to leverage relationships for future financing, rather than raising money. They zeroed on Reuters, and struck a distribution and revenue sharing deal with Reuters. The success of the yahoo – Reuters deal led Yahoo to bring together a pilot program of six advertisers like GM and Visa, each of which paid $20,000 per month.
As the number of paid advertisers along with the daily visitors in Yahoo’s website increased, few companies showed interests in investing in Yahoo. Reuters, computer-magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Japanese software publisher and distributor giant Softbank invested in Yahoo against a portion of its equitystake. Reuters invested $1 mn for a 2.5% stake, Ziff Davis and Softbank each invested $2 mn for 5% stakes.
In 1999 when the dotcoms started to collapse in 1999, and the advertising market shrank, Yahoo had to search new ways other than advertising to make money. Yahoo started charging for some of its existing services, like auctions and personals and introduced new paid services, like extra storage space for email and photos, registration of personal domain names and tools for building personal Web pages. In 1999, Yahoo also entered the ecommerce business by introducing Yahoo Shopping where 9000 merchants joined. Yahoo also partnered with Kmart’s retail website, BlueLight.com, to provide free Internet access to the users, with the objective of attracting large number of new Net-savvy customers.

Brand Google

Google, the largest search engine, besides restricting itself as the number one search engine globally has become a one stop shop destination for many other offerings. It offers G-mail, the fast e-mail service; Google Earth replaced, atlas; Google News replaced newspapers and magazines. Google digitize all books available on the planet to offer e-versions of books. With so much to offer, it was no wonder that starting its journey as a humble search engine in late nineties, the company had emerged as one of the most powerful brands by 2006.
Beginning of Journey
Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University. Larry Page and Sergey Brin planned to develop a new way for online search. The idea behind the setting up of the Google was to organize all the globally available information and make it accessible and useful to all people across the world. Google was incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998.
In 2000, Google was answering 18 million queries daily and maintained a repository of one billion URLs (Uniform Resource Locator). Unlike other search engines, which relied on servers to answer the queries, Google linked PCs to answer the query fast and in accurate manner. This technology leads to a faster response time, greater scalability and lesser cost.
Google offers search facility on different subjects, in different languages, and users could search information on Google Toolbar, Google Deskbar, and on mobile through WAP and i-mode phones. Along with search facilities, Google also provided images, pages in different languages, airlines information and phone numbers, spell check and translation of web pages. Google to stay ahead in the competition and to become one of the most innovative companies, Google used PageRank and Hypertext-Matching Analysis technologies to provide reliable, fast and accurate information.
Google – NameWhen Larry Page and Sergey Brin established Google, the prime focus was on developing a ‘perfect search engine’ as Larry Page, defined Google as some thing that, ‘understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want’.
The name ‘Google’ was derived from the word ‘googol’ which meant a mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeroes (Googol means 10100). The company was named by nine year old Milton Sirotta, nephew of noted American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, “Mathematics and the Imagination” by Edward Kasner and James Newman. The name Google itself portrayed the company’s mission to organize information available on the internet. The name and meaning of the name reflected the company’s mission to organize virtually all the information available on the web and make it easily available free of cost. The word Google portrayed both technological and scientific supremacy and not an improbable, silly word.
Google – USPThe unique selling proposition of the Google brand was its searching specialization. Contrary to other search engines, which was evolved as media portals, Google remained a search engine. The four elements based on which Larry Page and Sergey Brin positioned Google differently from the rest of the companies were speed, accuracy, objectivity and easy usage. The easy usage and benefit transformed Google from a search engine to one of the most successful global brands.
Google – Logo
In 1998 Sergey Brin designed the logo of the company, to portray the essence of a cheerful, innovative and technical brand. Sergey Brin wanted Google to carry the fancy and fun Image which reflects in its name, image and logo of the company. The colorful rounded edges depicted that the company is approachable and friendly but at the same time means business and was serious about its work. Google, backed by a great idea and concept, supported by a service that delivers and portrayed by a fun logo and a relevant name, the company enjoyed high brand loyalty.
Google – Brand ExpansionBy 2000, Google piggyback on the four elements – Speed, accuracy, objectivity and ease of use became the largest Internet search engine. With time only one aspect of Google brand changed, which was done in a careful manner. It extended its philosophy from online internet search to easy availability of information, without considering the mode of delivery. Google retained its core online search engine as a separate brand identity and launched a separate brand for its different product category. (I will discuss Google – Brand Expansion in detail soon)
In 2004, Google created new product categories and forayed into unrelated areas viz. social networking, email services, Google earth, Google mini. The Google Search Appliance, the new hardware of Google also signified the brand image of Google.
Google – word-of-mouth wayIn 2006, Google became Generic brand with its unique model of service. Google also became synonymous for online search. Google became a household name and attained a power brand status without any advertising expenditure. The company did not spend anything on print or electronic media or online banners. Google, instead of developing the brand through the traditional way of advertising, focused on experience – user experience, customer experience or searcher experience. Google is a classic example of a power brand built on word-of-mouth. Google has strong word-of-mouth because it delivers on its uncomplicated promise. Its reputation spread with word of mouth from millions of satisfied users of Google as a search engine and helped the brand building process.
Google – Marching Ahead
Google has developed an emotional character that transcends cultural, geographical and language barriers. The inherent strength Google has built with time helped it in surviving and competing with industry power house like Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has focused on its strength by constantly projecting solutions to problems first rather than making money.
Google with a simple and uncomplicated business model which was supported by a simple brand and logo was the main prerequisite for the company’s success. Google portrayed itself as a company of 21st century and amazed many companies with its meteoric success.

Google built on Acquisition

Google built on Acquisition
It is a popular believes that Google is born and built on innovations, which is true. The making of Google is not only based on innovation but acquisitions also play a critical role. Google bought companies and worked on their properties to develop better product. The end goal of acquiring a company may be aligned with Google’s overall mission. Google bought companies to grab global database, make that data useful and accessible, attract users attention and loyalty towards the database, and most importantly to increase profit from ads displayed with the data.

2001Deja , Usenet which helped Google develop Google GroupsOutride , Web search engine which helped Google develop Google Personalized Search

2003Pyra Labs , Weblog software which helped Google develop BloggerNeotonic Software , Customer relationship management which helped Google develop Google Groups, GmailApplied Semantics , Online advertising which helped Google develop AdSense, AdWordsKaltix , Web search engine which helped Google develop iGoogleSprinks(a division of Primedia) , Online advertising which helped Google develop AdSense, AdWordsGenius Labs , Blogging which helped Google develop Blogger

2004Ignite Logic , HTML editor which helped Google develop Google Page CreatorBaiduA , Chinese language search engine which helped Google developPicasa , Image organizer which helped Google develop Picasa, BloggerZipDash , Traffic analysis which helped Google develop Google Ride FinderWhere2 , Map analysis which helped Google develop Google MapsKeyhole, Inc , Map analysis which helped Google develop Google Maps, Google Earth

2005Urchin Software Corporation , Web analytics which helped Google develop Google AnalyticsDodgeball , Social networking service which helped Google develop Google Mobile, Google SMSReqwireless , Mobile browser which helped Google develop Google MobileCurrent Communications Group , Broadband internet access which helped Google develop Internet backboneAndroid , Mobile software which helped Google develop AndroidSkia , Graphics software which helped Google develop AndroidAkwan Information Technologies , Search Engines which helped Google develop Internet backboneAOLB , Broadband internet access which helped Google developPhatbits , Widget engine which helped Google develop Google DesktopallPAY GmbH , Mobile software which helped Google develop Google MobilebruNET GmbH , Mobile software which helped Google develop Google Mobile

2006dMarc Broadcasting , Advertising which helped Google develop AdSenseMeasure Map , Weblog software which helped Google develop Google AnalyticsUpstartle , Word processor which helped Google develop Google Documents@Last Software , 3D modeling software which helped Google develop Google SketchupOrion , Web search engine which helped Google develop Google Search2Web Technologies , Online spreadsheets which helped Google develop Google SpreadsheetNeven Vision , Computer vision which helped Google develop Google MapsYouTube , Video sharing which helped Google develop YouTubeJotSpot , Web application which helped Google develop Google SitesEndoxon , Mapping which helped Google develop Google Maps

2007XunleiC , File sharing which helped Google developAdscape , In-game advertising which helped Google develop AdSenseTrendalyzer , Statistical software which helped Google develop Google AnalyticsTonic Systems , Presentation program which helped Google develop Google DocumentsMarratech , Videoconferencing which helped Google develop Google TalkDoubleClick , Online advertising which helped Google develop AdSenseGreenBorder , Computer security which helped Google develop Internal usePanoramio , Photo sharing which helped Google develop Blogger, MapsFeedBurner , Web feed which helped Google develop Google ReaderPeakStream , Parallel processing which helped Google develop Server (computing)Zenter , Presentation program which helped Google develop Google DocumentsGrandCentral , Voice over Internet Protocol which helped Google develop Google MobileImage America , Aerial photography which helped Google develop Google MapsPostini , Communications security which helped Google develop GmailZingku , Social network service which helped Google develop Google MobileJaiku , Micro-blogging which helped Google develop Google Mobile

2008DoubleClick , an online advertising
Historically, the focus of Google while acquisition is on technology and data acquisitions, which helped it emerge as the Power brand.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org