Below you will find a sample strategy report which I have assembled on Google Buzz for the Proximity social networking team.
To: Proximity Social networking team
From:
Date: February 18, 2010
Subject: Google Buzz strategy analysis
Profile
Google Buzz was established as a social networking application developed by Google. Google has revolutionized the internet with its array of technology, websites, and applications, and its automated search engine. A majority of its revenues are from the sales of advertisements that are targeted to audiences by search words and phrases. Google was incorporated in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD students of California’s Stanford University. Today, Google’s CEO is Dr. Eric Schmidt. The company is based out of Silicon Valley and holds offices in the America’s, Europe, and Asia. The mission of Google is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful.”
In 2009, Google reported revenues of 23.65 billion dollars, up 9% from 2008. Besides its popular search engine and its newest edition of Google Buzz, Google is also well-known for its application, Google maps and the Google Nexus, a smart phone unveiled in 2010.1
Competitive Landscape
The social networking competitive landscape is ever changing, and Google Buzz is trying to capitalize on this. Even though Facebook is almost seen as the prevailing social networking site at the moment, it’s easy for consumers to change their preferences, as seen as just a few years ago when consumers left Myspace to pursue networking on Facebook. 2 Facebook offers users the ability to connect instantaneously with each other through the use of wall posts, picture uploading, and link and video sharing.3 Google Buzz offers similar capabilities and once it has been created a user can opt to have their Gmail contacts imported into their feed. Another feature that Buzz offers a “localization powerhouse,” meaning that users can see where a user is and the activity in his or her geographical location.4 The landscape is still being shaped and only time will tell who will prevail.
Google Buzz’s Strategy
TO: Proximity Social Networking Team
FROM:
DATE: February 22, 2010
SUBJECT: Faceook strategy analysis
Here is my Facebook strategy analysis. Although Facebook dominates the Social Networking market, many analysts think consumer power jeopardizes Facebook future success with the competition of other Social Networking sites available on the web. Also, Facebook’s future revenue may pose problems.
Profile Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address (and not residing in one of the countries where it is banned) can become a Facebook user (wikipedia, 2010).
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hugheswhile he was a student at Harvard University. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include (potentially) any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide (Wikipedia, 2010.)
Today, Facebook boasts 100 million active users. Estimated annual sales: $300 million. Forced to scale back feature three weeks after its release. Microsoft bought 1.6% stake for $240 million last October; deal led many to suggest the company is worth $15 billion (Bertoni and Gell, 2008).
Competitive landscape Although Facebook is the top Social Networking site, as of right now, Consumer power is a big concern for the Social Networking site, because Facebook users who own an account are not locked in to a contract; therefore, users have the option to switch their social networking site if another site looks more intriguing.
Since each Social Networking site offers different features, the number of social networking sites available on the web could add competition to Facebook , and or, could decrease the number of users who obtain a Facebook account.
Some companies provide new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into the real world. Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is Linkedin.com. This social network allows professionals to exchange information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay informed with new knowledge about their field (Wikipedia, 2010).
Other social network competitors include Friendster, LinkdIn, Myspace and Twitter. However, Siteanalytics.compete.com, reports that Facebook has accumulated 133,623,529 visitors, where as, LinkdIn, had only accumulated 6,431 views, in January 2010. However, Facebook’s biggest competitor in the social networking world is Myspace who accumulated 50,615,444 views.
Facebook’s strategy As stated on Facebook.com, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better (Eldon, 2008).
Gen-Y implications The biggest question regarding Facebook’s future income is how Facebook will make all their money off of their users. The company has been experimenting with a variety of ways for users to share information about advertisers on the site. For example, an advertiser can set up a “Page” about a product, and then users can become fans. When a user becomes a fan, the user’s friends see a message about that action in their news feeds. Now, more than 2.5 million users are joining pages each day (Eldon, 2008).
Since Facebook makes most of their money by advertisements displayed on their site, another problem this social networking site could be faced with is advertisers cutting back ad spending. Third party marketing analyst firms like eMarketer believe that “experimental” forms of advertising, like advertiser Pages, will be cut (Eldon, 2008). References
Bertoni, Steve and Gell, Erin. (September 17, 2008). Want To Marry A Billionaire? Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from www.forbes.com/2008/09/16
pdmiers
Feb 22, 2010
To: Proximity Social networking team
From:
Date: February 18, 2010
Subject: Google Buzz strategy analysis
Profile
Google Buzz was established as a social networking application developed by Google. Google has revolutionized the internet with its array of technology, websites, and applications, and its automated search engine. A majority of its revenues are from the sales of advertisements that are targeted to audiences by search words and phrases. Google was incorporated in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD students of California’s Stanford University. Today, Google’s CEO is Dr. Eric Schmidt. The company is based out of Silicon Valley and holds offices in the America’s, Europe, and Asia. The mission of Google is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful.”
In 2009, Google reported revenues of 23.65 billion dollars, up 9% from 2008. Besides its popular search engine and its newest edition of Google Buzz, Google is also well-known for its application, Google maps and the Google Nexus, a smart phone unveiled in 2010.1
Competitive Landscape
The social networking competitive landscape is ever changing, and Google Buzz is trying to capitalize on this. Even though Facebook is almost seen as the prevailing social networking site at the moment, it’s easy for consumers to change their preferences, as seen as just a few years ago when consumers left Myspace to pursue networking on Facebook. 2 Facebook offers users the ability to connect instantaneously with each other through the use of wall posts, picture uploading, and link and video sharing.3 Google Buzz offers similar capabilities and once it has been created a user can opt to have their Gmail contacts imported into their feed. Another feature that Buzz offers a “localization powerhouse,” meaning that users can see where a user is and the activity in his or her geographical location.4 The landscape is still being shaped and only time will tell who will prevail.
Google Buzz’s Strategy
TO: Proximity Social Networking Team
FROM:
DATE: February 22, 2010
SUBJECT: Faceook strategy analysis
Here is my Facebook strategy analysis. Although Facebook dominates the Social Networking market, many analysts think consumer power jeopardizes Facebook future success with the competition of other Social Networking sites available on the web. Also, Facebook’s future revenue may pose problems.
Profile
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address (and not residing in one of the countries where it is banned) can become a Facebook user (wikipedia, 2010).
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hugheswhile he was a student at Harvard University. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include (potentially) any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide (Wikipedia, 2010.)
Today, Facebook boasts 100 million active users. Estimated annual sales: $300 million. Forced to scale back feature three weeks after its release. Microsoft bought 1.6% stake for $240 million last October; deal led many to suggest the company is worth $15 billion (Bertoni and Gell, 2008).
Competitive landscape
Although Facebook is the top Social Networking site, as of right now, Consumer power is a big concern for the Social Networking site, because Facebook users who own an account are not locked in to a contract; therefore, users have the option to switch their social networking site if another site looks more intriguing.
Since each Social Networking site offers different features, the number of social networking sites available on the web could add competition to Facebook , and or, could decrease the number of users who obtain a Facebook account.
Some companies provide new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into the real world. Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is Linkedin.com. This social network allows professionals to exchange information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay informed with new knowledge about their field (Wikipedia, 2010).
Other social network competitors include Friendster, LinkdIn, Myspace and Twitter. However, Siteanalytics.compete.com, reports that Facebook has accumulated 133,623,529 visitors, where as, LinkdIn, had only accumulated 6,431 views, in January 2010. However, Facebook’s biggest competitor in the social networking world is Myspace who accumulated 50,615,444 views.
Facebook’s strategy
As stated on Facebook.com, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better (Eldon, 2008).
Gen-Y implications
The biggest question regarding Facebook’s future income is how Facebook will make all their money off of their users. The company has been experimenting with a variety of ways for users to share information about advertisers on the site. For example, an advertiser can set up a “Page” about a product, and then users can become fans. When a user becomes a fan, the user’s friends see a message about that action in their news feeds. Now, more than 2.5 million users are joining pages each day (Eldon, 2008).
Since Facebook makes most of their money by advertisements displayed on their site, another problem this social networking site could be faced with is advertisers cutting back ad spending. Third party marketing analyst firms like eMarketer believe that “experimental” forms of advertising, like advertiser Pages, will be cut (Eldon, 2008).
References
Bertoni, Steve and Gell, Erin. (September 17, 2008). Want To Marry A Billionaire? Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from www.forbes.com/2008/09/16
Eldon, Eric. (December 18, 2008). 2008 growth puts Facebook in better position to make money. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-in-better-position-to-make-money/trackback/
Press Info. Facebook. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/press/releases
Wikipedia. ( February 22, 2010). Facebook. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook