Disclosure #1: I love the fact that Bing and Yahoo are going to merge their search efforts. It’s been long needed for a real competitor to emerge against Google.
Disclosure #2: I’m an avid and faithful Google user.
With all due respect to Shane O’Neill (I’m a fan of CIO.com), I completely disagree with his article “3 Reasons Google Should Fear Microsoft-Yahoo Partnership”.
In fact, I’m very tired of hearing about Bing’s challenge to Google – it just isn’t there. Yet, anyway.
Yes – if the Microsoft-Yahoo deal passes anti-trust regulators, Microsoft will hold a currently estimated 28 percent of the US search market.
But as I’ve said before, the internet is global. Search is global. While Bing holds an okay 8.22 percent of the US search engine market (as of September 1, 2009), Microsoft only owns 3.09 percent globally.
Perhaps most importantly, both of those figures are DOWN from their August readings: 9.64 percent and 3.58 percent, respectively.
Should the Microsoft-Yahoo deal go through, the combined pair will own a whopping (drum roll please) 7.91 percent of the global search engine market.
That’s assuming today’s numbers hold over the course of the next year until the deal can be decided upon.
Mr. O’Neill points out that Microsoft has deep pockets and a strong commitment to the search industry. And Google is what, barely scrapping by?
The last time I checked, Google is a $144 billion company. Sure, smaller than Microsoft ($213 billion), but fully dedicated to innovation in the search industry.
And those deep pockets of Microsoft’s? The reported $100 million spent on advertising in the US? Bing’s market share in the US is nearly flat since June. Since they started spending.
To the idea that Google doesn’t market itself, so it needs to worry about Bing doing all the marketing??
Mr. O’Neill wisely points out that when your company name is a worldwide verb, the need for advertising isn’t as strong. Great point.
When I search for something online, I “Google” it. When I tell someone to look up a statistic or to search for a story I read two months ago, I say “Google” it. I have yet to hear anyone say “just Bing it”, unless they’re specifically talking about Bing.
Have those Bing ads really changed perceptions? That $100 million was spent in the US, and yet the market share is flat. What did Bing change?
I tried using Bing the other day – looking for the latest information about the tragic DJ Am death. Guess what? You can’t search by a time frame on Bing like you can with Google.
I love that I can look at recent results, results within the past 24 hours, and results within the past week on Google. Not so much on Bing.
Perception is reality… and my perception is that Google offers a much greater search value.
And O’Neill’s final bullet point is that Google relies too heavily on search for revenue.
Okay?
According to a 2008 JPMorgan report, global search revenue is expected to reach $60 billion by 2011…
…of which Google currently controls 89.86 percent. My math skills aren’t what they used to be, but that works out to just under $54 billion. Not exactly small potatoes, and just fractionally below all of Microsoft’s reported $60 billion 2008 revenue.
So if I’m so adamant that Bing isn’t a true contender and competitor to Google, why do I like the merger proposal? I like it because it means Google will (hopefully) work hard to keep innovating. I’m looking forward to Wave, and I’m looking forward to what Google will come out with in the future.
By: Zack S.
