Folderauer+S+Strategy+Report

To: Proximity Social networking team From: Shannon Folderauer Date: February 28, 2010 Subject: Google Buzz strategy analysis Below you will find my strategy report on Google Buzz for the Proximity social networking team. Google Buzz is relatively new to the social networking phenomenon and forecasters believe it will take some time to gain popularity. Buzz has the potential to be the next 'it' trend in social networking if it can overcome some recent privacy mishaps and gain market share from its fellow competition.

**Profile

Google Buzz was established as a free social networking application by Google, which was incorporated in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD students at Stanford University. Google's current CEO is Dr. Eric Schmidt. The company is based out of Silicon Valley.

Google has revolutionized the internet with its array of technology, websites, and applications, and its automated search engine. The mission of Google is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful.”

Google gets most of its revenues by selling targeted ads associated with users' search words and phrases. In 2009, the company 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 applications such as Google Docs and Google mapsas well Google Nexus, a smart phone unveiled in 2010. (Google, 2010)

Competitive Landscape**

The social networking competitive landscape is dominated by two forces:
 * //Head-to-head competition with Facebook and Twitter//
 * //The users' ability to easily switch sites// - //e.g. when consumers left Myspace to pursue networking on Facebook// (Nemertes, 2010)


 * Google Buzz’s Strategy**

Google Buzz's top competitor is Facebook, the dominant force in social networking. Facebook offers users the ability to connect instantaneously with each other through the use of wall posts, picture uploading, and link and video sharing. In just a few year's it has attracted more than 400 million users. (Facebook, 2010) Google Buzz offers similar capabilities, and in addition a user can opt to have their Gmail contacts imported into their feed. Another feature that Buzz offers is a “localization powerhouse,” meaning that users can see where a user is and the activity in his or her geographical location. Buzz also allows users to post from its other utilities like Google Reader and Picasso onto their Buzz wall. (Ulanoff, 2010)

Buzz's features like Reader and Picasso distinguish it from many of the other social networking and Buzz wants to take advantage of that. The Google Buzz strategy is simple, it wants take significant market share away from Facebook. In doing this, it hopes to uncover what its users want, so Google and its many advertisers can monopolize in its already successful targeted advertising. Facebook has tried to replicate Buzz's use of targeted advertising and allows businesses to create pages for consumers to flock to. However, advertiser's pages provide no source of revenue for Facebook. Google Buzz hopes to hold the competitive advantage in its targeted ads and overall gain user loyalty. (Krazit, 2010)


 * Gen Y Implications**

Google Buzz has the potential to be the next 'it' trend among Gen Y. Because it is still new, it is hard to assess how popular it will be with this generation. It is recommended to hold off on any sudden decisions regarding the addition of Google Buzz. Gen Y users, already loyal to the Google name may opt in, or at least try Buzz. (Dziadul, 2010)

Buzz is still fresh and new, and still has a few obstacles to overcome. One of its largest obstacles subsequent to its launch has been with its privacy policy. Before users started "buzzing" they were automatically set up to follow people who they exchanged e-mails and chats with and without changing this default setting, contacts were made public on your buzz page. The default setting controversy outraged many users and gave Buzz a bad reputation. (Carlson, 2010)

Google has since corrected its privacy flaws to better suit its users, but Buzz is still new. Its privacy flaw will only be one of many obstacles that Google will have to overcome. I think it will be best to see how consumers in Gen Y react to Google Buzz in the coming months, and how they react to its recent blunder regarding privacy issues before launching the idea to our clients. Proximity clients should wait until Google Buzz's reputation can bounce back after its shaky launch.




 * References:**

Google. //Corporate information.// Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/

Nemertes Research. //Google enters social media space with google buzz addition to gmail.// nemertes.com. Retrieved on February 25, 2009 from []

Facebook. //Facebook.// Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from [|http://www.facebook.com/facebook#!/facebook?v=info]

Ulanoff, Lance. //Google's buzz puts Facebook, Twitter, on notice.// (2010, February 10) pcmag.com. Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from []

Krazit, Tom. //Google's social side hopes to catch some Buzz.// (2010, February 9) news.cnet.com. Retrieved on February 25, 2009 from []

Dziadul, Kristin. //What google means for non-Twitter users.// (2010, February 10) kdmedianow.com. Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from []

Carlson, Nicholas. //Warning Google Buzz has a huge privacy flaw.// (2010, February 10) businessinsider.com. Retrieved on February 25, 2010 from []

Folderauer S