Updated Google activities in Singapore

Hi guys,

It has been a while since my last post. I’ve started to get busy lately.
However, i will try to keep this blog updated at least once per week.

Today i will write about Google, some updates about Google Singapore since it was Google birthday last week.

As some of you may know, Google’s birthday for this year is on 27th Sept. The reason i write Google birthday for this year is because Google does not have a fixed birthday, but it changes year by year. Googlers mention that they just celebrate the company’s birthday when they feel like it -_-

Looking back, it has been truly amazing 9 years for Google. From a two men company, Google turns into one of the most prominent company in the world with more than 13,000 employees.

The company share is traded at around USD 594.00 and analysts expect the stock price to hit USD 600.0 any time soon.
Without a doubt, Google owns search engine world. Google rules are now search engine rules.
And Google doesn’t stop there. It has been aggressively acquiring companies from various fields, mostly related to online and information to materialize the company founders’ vision of organizing the world information, making them accessible and useful.

You can refer to Google Acquisition here.
Local Story

How about Google Singapore? What progress has it made?

Since the company opened its door in Singapore May 2007, the company has been aggressively recruiting talented people with language skills of SouthEast Asian countries, building up its content network, partners, direct sales team, etc…

Recently, Google creates SE Asia Head of communication role Sept 19th 2007. Dickson Seow joined Google in August, after resignation from his previous post as senior manager of Asia Pacific corporate communications for semiconductor company, Xilinx.

Oct 2007, Google introduces its mobile ad service for Singapore, together with Gadget ads worldwide. Google has long wanted to tap into the opportunity of providing mobile ads for the region with more than 100 millions mobile users. Singapore, the leading country with regards to telecom infrastructure, has been the first one in SE Asia to offer mobile ads.

However, if you log into your local Adwords account right now, you may not see the option of creating mobile ads campaign. You may want to contact Google directly if you want to use this service.

In terms of search market share, Google has 59.52% of the market in Singapore accordingly to Hitwise Aug 2007, up from 58.7% just in Jul 2007. Soon Google will reach 80% or even 90% of the market share in Singapore just like the situation right now in other SE Asia countries.

The end of the rainbow

While being a Google fan for a long time, this is the first time that i feel the overwhelming dominance that Google has in the market place and in the world. While Google motto is “do no evil”, one can’t just simply ignore the fact that Google is a profit oriented, publicly traded company. There is without a doubt that investors have high hope for Google, reflecting on its through the roof share price.

People have been voicing their concerns with Google for a long time and so i don’t want to repeat what you can easily find on the internet. My biggest concern at the moment is not innovations or breakthroughs with search engine but rather whether it is healthy for the Search Engine Marketing industry and Online Industry to have a super power company who has become the only search engine of people choice, at the same time aggressively becoming the biggest media owner of the world.
When Google becomes the biggest media owner in the world, it will exert tremendous power over marketing industry, in which more and more advertising budget is shifting from offline mediums into online one.
Search Budget see double digit growth worldwide as marketers start to focusing more on ROI campaigns. Google Adwords is still the number one choice of Search Engine Marketers.

The conclusion

Well guys, I will love Google and its product at the end of the day. From a end user standpoint, Google has provided tremendous value added services. I enjoy using Google, its services, online applications.
However, from a search engine marketing professional point of view, i do have some concerns over the world dominant power that Google has.
Lastly, being a blog about Search Engine Marketing for this region, i will continue providing updates with regards to Google activities for the region.

Have a nice weekend everyone,

Cheerio,
Chandler