Google? Changes EVERYTHING?

From the article "Real-World Case: GOOGLE IS CHANGING EVERYTHING",
the most agreed term is that "probably no other company has impacted our work and life as much as Google has".
At least this is aligned with what I thought.

It is true that Google is primarily known for its search engine and its advertising tools. However, there are still a lot of people get to be impressed for Google’s informal corporate culture. Google has been placed at the top of the Fortune Magazine's list of hundred best places to work in 2007 and 2008.

Even though Google is well-known for its advertising tools, it also encountered problem for unable to counteraction against the click fraud[1] which is a kind of internet crime.


The Google Spreadsheet, a Web-based application, is quite similar to Excel, just that it is Google branded and webified.
However, it provides no multi-column sorts, clipboard limitation, limited menus, inability to highlight multiple non-consecutive cells, missing Paste Special and others[2].
Some users even think that using Excel is much easier than using Google Spreadsheet.



Today, Google Spreadsheet has been integrated with Writely word processing application into a single control panel and administrative area and it is known as Google Docs & Spreadsheet.
The Google Docs & Spreadsheet shares quite similar functions as Google Spreadsheet.
However, Google Docs & Spreadsheet enables the users to import and export the data to a wider range of file formats (DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, HTML, PDF, and others).
With the function that can be shared and edited simultaneously by others outside the organisations which cannot be done by Excel, it is obvious that Google is stealing away the computing share from Microsoft day by day.
But the requirement to log in with Google account sometimes becomes an annoyance to the users.


Being an extension of Google’s existing content collection efforts (traditional web crawl system, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video), Google Base enhanced the searchableness of the information from different content owners via Google.
Its goal is to improve the overall quality and extent of Google Search results.
Like what the author of this article said, it helps users feature relevant information on Google’s main search index, its Froogle shopping comparison tool and Google Local search.


BearingPoint’s ease and speed of integration, extended search reach, security and access control and sales, service and support enable Google to bring powerful but simple search solutions to complex enterprise environments.





The products provided by Google can be ranged from desktop products to hardware products[3].
Inside this range, the web products which are advertising, search, mapping and others are the most impressive for the users.
With these products, we can find out that Google is trying its best to bring an easy life to the users.
And, these products do change many things around us.
In arriving to this stage, Google also faced some criticism in terms of intellectual property, internet privacy, censorship and other issues[4].
Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Google is changing everything.


References:

100 Best Companies to Work For 2007

Announcing Google Base

Featured Partners- BearingPoint

An example of an E-commerce failure and its causes

Webvan was founded in 1996 and turned into Dot.com Company during 2nd June 1999. Louis H. Borders is the founder of this giant online grocer. The company did very well at the beginning and the business expanded very fast all over the United States. However, Webvan presented a net loss of $217 million and an accumulated deficit of $820 million during year ended 2007. There is no persuasive revival or recovery plan so far that could be found.

There are 4 main causes which contribute to the failure of Webvan:

Lack of planning and experiences

The founder of Webvan does not have any experience on online grocer at the first place. However, the dot.com company decided to expand so quickly into the unfamiliar and uncertain area. Moreover, Webvan ran the online grocer by its own way without depending on experiences of others. The lack of experience has caused poor management decision making and wrong business focus which lead to the failure of Webvan.

Other than that, the poor demand forecast also contributes a lot to the failure of Webvan. Demand forecast of Webvan is too optimistic where the management thought that online grocer has been dominant almost all of the market and people do not want to shop at supermarket anymore. The poor demand forecast causes the revenue of the company fail to cover the huge expenses invested in logistic, delivery and technology.


Lost control on spending

Due to the poor decision making and planning, Webvan tends to invest a very huge amount of money in various parts of the online grocer business.

First, Webvan invested a huge amount of money in technology and it was too expensive for a low volume and low margin products and sales. Secondly, Webvan invested $25 million to $35million per mega warehouses to build its fully automated distribution centers. Thirdly, Webvan withdrew $850 million merely for campaign and advertisement purposes. Last but not least, the take over action on HomeGrocer.com cost Webvan $1.2 billion.

The above-mentioned huge spending leads to an increase in existing debts and drives up the break-even point of the company. These expenses have become a disaster for Webvan when the sales demand was much lower than expected.

Poor quality control

After realizing about the lost control of spending, Webvan tried to solve the problem by cutting down the cost at the expense of their customers. The sales demand dropped again because of the poor quality control which worsened the situation of Webvan.


Loss customer focus

Webvan fails to understand the value chain of online grocery business. It is a vital part for an online grocer company to be more customers-oriented. However, Webvan tends to focus on the efficiency of the work progress while lost its focus to react when there is a change in customer requirement.

In the end, Webvan fails to meet customer requirement and therefore causes sales of the company to drop.

Reference:

Success and Failure of Pure-Play Organizations:Webvan versus Peapod, a Comparative Analysis

Taobao, an E-commerce success and its causes

Do you know Taobao.com?



Here it goes, China's largest consumer to consumer (C2C) e-commerce company, miracle Taobao!

• Background :

Taobao is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group in China. This online trade giant launched in 2003, provides a marketplace and chance to young and educated entrepreneurs to establish their own business. Surprisingly, Taobao is now the most successful online auction company in China and even eBay was kicked out from the market in December 2006. In the past five years, Taobao dominated about 80% of the online-shopping market share. (Information from iResearch) Guess how much is the sales figures last year? It was RMB99.9 billion (RM 54 billion) ! More than double of the sales volume in 2007!

• How?

I am 100% sure that success will not come to you but you must find your ways to achieve it. According to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Taobao.com, Zhang Yong, certainly there are some secrets.


* AliPay

This unique online payment system serves as a middleman between the seller in Taobao and the consumer. When the customer decides to buy a particular item, the money will be transferred to his AliPay account. The money will go to the seller from AliPay account only when the customer receives and is satisfied with the merchandise.



* Customer Protection Program

People always are less confident for the quality of online products due to they cannot test, see as well as touch them. Taobao has come up with a solution called 'customer protection program'. Every seller must pay a sum of deposit to Taobao as a compensation to customers if any of them claim a loss. This will secure the consumers and they are more willing to purchase from Taobao.



* Credit Rating System

This is a system that most of the online shopping websites have.
Customers who have dealt with the sellers will comment on the sellers. The credit rating is open to everyone so those who are interested to buy will have a look at the track record before they make any decision.
The system indirectly encourages buyers to purchase online.


* Cheaper Price

Last but not least, customers can enjoy cheaper price at online shopping than buying at brick and mortar. Smart consumer will choose to buy online since they can have same product with lesser price. Multinational companies such as Dell and P&G have also opened an online store at Taobao to attract more loyal customers.

So what are you waiting for?
You can be a success also.
Just go ahead!


Reference:

1. Interview with COO of Taobao, Zhang Yong

History & evolution of e-commerce

One of the most common activities on the Web is shopping. This buying and selling of products and services electronically over the Internet is known as electronic commerce, or more commonly called e-commerce. Initially, e-commerce meant the carrying out of commercial transaction electronically with the aid of technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), which allowed users to send commercial documents and do electronic transactions. For broader definition, e-commerce includes not only buying and selling of goods and services, but also servicing customers, collaborating with business partners and carrying out transaction electronically within the organisation. The history of e-commerce began before the first Internet connection was introduced. There were several significant steps in the history of e-commerce. The first step began with the development of EDI in 1968, which is a set of standard developed to exchange business information and do transaction electronically. In the beginning, many companies were not able to work with each other electronically because there were several different EDI formats. Nevertheless, in 1984, the ASC X12 became the reliable standard for handling large amounts of transactions. Few years later in 1992, Mosaic, the first point-and-click web browser was introduced. Based on Mosaic, Netscape, the first downloadable browser which enabled users to be involved in e-commerce, was then developed in 1994. The development of Netscape played a significant role in the history of e-commerce. The next key step took place in 1998 when Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) was developed. DSL offered higher bandwidth and allowed users to get connected to the Internet persistently. During the 10 weeks holiday season in 1998, AOL generated more than $1.2 billion in sales from online transactions. This was followed by the development of Red Hat Linux, which gave the users an option to choose between Windows and the reliable open-sourced Linux. In 1999, Napster, which was an online application that allowed users to share music files for free, was founded. As its popularity increased, users started to voice out what they desired from the industry for the first time. Another major step in e-commerce occurred in 2000, when AOL merged with Time Warner. The merger, which worth $350 million, combined a newly developed online company with an established traditional company. In February 2000, hackers attacked some of the biggest giants of e-commerce, such as Yahoo, eBay and Amazon.com. This awakened users to the need for a higher level of Internet security. The evolution of e-commerce can be summarised as follows: 1968: development of EDI 1984: standardisation of EDI through ASC X12 1992: creation of Mosaic browser 1994: arrival of Netscape 1998: introduction of DSL 1999: development of Red Hat Linux 1999: foundation of Napster 2000: merger of AOL and TimeWarner.


The evolution of e-commerce can be summarised as follows:
1968: development of EDI
1984: standardisation of EDI through ASC X12
1992: creation of Mosaic browser
1994: arrival of Netscape
1998: introduction of DSL
1999: development of Red Hat Linux
1999: foundation of Napster
2000: merger of AOL and Time Warner



References:
Electronic commerce
History of Ecommerce
History of E-commerce