If we solely look at the search space, Google (Alphabet) is a monopoly that controls most of the search market. However, if we look at the wider digital marketing space, Google looks more like an oligopoly that competes against other tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and more from various markets developed due to the web.
Analyzing a market to understand the competitive landscape is not as straightforward as it seems. Indeed, things might be connected in unexpected ways in the business world, and that is even truer for competition on the web. Boundaries are much more blurred, and markets that didn’t exist a few years ago just developed. As they consolidate, it becomes easier to establish their boundaries. But given the current landscape, many markets are now overlapping.
For that reason, when we look at a company like Google (Alphabet), we know it operates within the boundary of the search industry, which is its core business and what it still provides most of its revenues. Yet, it also operates outside of it.
That is why if we look at the competitive landscape for Google we also find it pretty diversified.
Google’s main business is about data and how this is used to improve its products and enable its business model still primarily based on advertising (which turned out to be the killer revenue model for the web).
Thus, by looking at the search market along, no doubt Google looks like a monopoly, with its over 90% market share worldwide and its control over the Android operating system and Google Chrome browser.
If we instead look from the other perspectives, like voice search, digital advertising, and media, Google looks more like an oligopoly, fighting to gain control over these various markets.
Read Next: Google Business Model, How Does Google Make Money, Google Companies, Google Competitors, Google Organizational Structure, Facebook Business Model, Amazon Business Model, YouTube Business Model.
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