The Big Players – Internet Wars
This month I thought I’d give you an outline of who the big players are at the moment competing in the internet wars, the battle lines have been drawn and to a large extent are being redrawn all the time, but here’s an outline for you:
Microsoft – they still retain by far the largest amount of control over us all, with around 90% of computers run on Windows, about 60% of people use Internet Explorer, Millions use Hotmail, Bing (search) has about 11% of the market and while they are trying hard on Mobile they remain dominant in also every major aspect of our computing lives.
Our prognosis: Microsoft will be around for a great many years yet – they are real fighters and won’t let any control pass from their hands easily – watch out for IE9 due out any day now.
Google – hot on the heels of Microsoft they have launched competitive products in nearly every field, but we must remember they command 90% of search in the UK and 60% in the USA. Gmail has almost as many users as Hotmail, they have products for Photo Galleries, Blogs, Statistics, News, YouTube, hardly a days goes by when you don’t have access to Google – The worlds biggest search engine is Google, the worlds second biggest search engine is YouTube and that’s quite an achievement.Our prognosis: Google are going to get a lot bigger yet – their Mobile offering (Android) is growing at 800% per month – you need to take Google seriously because they will make or break you.
Yahoo – all change – they are in a muddle and definitely the third man here in terms of search, their strongest product is Yahoo Mail – but quite frankly and rather sadly their future is dimmer. Purple never sells as they say. What strengths do they have, slightly more specialist, Flickr is well liked by some, but their real strength now is that they are integrating with every one else.
Our prognosis: Yahoo increasingly and sadly can be ignored – if you have a website Yahoo can provide some low cost alternative, but in reality can be ignored.
Apple – it’s all hype over at Apple – a remarkable story for sure – their strengths first – the iPod lead to the iPhone and both needed iTunes and iTunes needs an Apple computer (for best results) it really is one thing leading to the next – because if you have an Apple computer you are almost certainly interested in a iPad – é Voila! You’re and Apple man. But let’s not lose sight of the statistics, iPods are virtually redundant as the iPhone takes over, iPhones are seriously expensive and the number are telling, 15 million sold to date (it’s really not that many compared to Nokia (@ 65% of the market). I think we’re talking 4% market share and growing between 15-20% per month.
Our prognosis: Apple are eager and slick – you cannot avoid them, but be prepared to pay for it if you want it. Computers cost more, iPhones are expensive and require higher monthly fees. You still have control just about – Apple are in for tough times as people see through the slick machine that they are.
- Facebook – a classic case of super growth and now they are working out how to capitalise on that. They are making a profit from advertising, but advertising is expensive – Facebook have 500 million users, that’s 1 in 15 people on the planet – soon to be 1 in ten, it’s a lot – but Facebook is a Data Dead End – what you do on Facebook almost always stays on Facebook – that’s both a strength and aweakness depending if you’re part of the club or not. Facebook are threatening all of the above companies with sheer force of numbers. If they do email, maps, documents, search or any other service they will make a massive dent in someone else’s business model.
Our prognosis: be ready for Facebook and sign up and join in – I am really sad to say it, but if you have a website and you want to do well on the the web – you must join Facebook and participate regularly and often – why – because that’s where 500 million computer owning, white collar, money in pockets, affluent and influential people are. On Facebook.
to eBay – they all want a piece of the action.