There is a new term that has been coined in the industry. It is called 'GYM'. Think to yourself, can you actually spend a whole day without GYM?? Even movies these days have started using GYM...I have seen two movies in the last month where they said “just google it“
What does GYM stand for: Om brands Google, Yahoo, Microsoft as GYM. These three players are heavy platform influencers that affect the everyday life of most Computer/Internet users. They will define the future! That is why we need to pay attention.
As far as services, think mail: MSN/Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Gmail...think instant messaging, think online portal, think online advertising and marketing (overture, adwords), think maps (yahoo maps, google maps, msn maps), think satellite imagery (virtual earth, google earth)...etc etc. These three companies are going to fight over and drive what the Internet of tomorrow will be like.
It's interesting what is happening in blogosphere these days; the “fathers“ of blogging (well respected bloggers) even acknowledge it's hard to blog without touching on one of the three GYM. Scobleizer attempted 100 posts without touching GYM...Kurt Burton did the same - one week no GYM. As of Nov 14th, he was 25% of the way there...Steve Teixerira said this: “...Scoble Blogging without mentioning GYM is like programming without for loops... or hockey without fights“. LOL
A lot of people have likened the dominance and monopoly that Microsoft has always been accused of (with their Windows and Office platform), with what Google is doing on the web right now! This is the reason that Google is a big threat to Microsoft. They are trying to control most of the traffic on the web. To understand why Google is/will be a platform and how it is similar to Windows: Google's (new generation) platform, if you will, is their search engine which lives in any browser...just like Microsoft's platform is their operating system - Windows. In the painted scenario, think of the browser in today's world as the PC in the world of Microsoft's platform. So, google's operating system runs on any browser and is always luring you to make it your home page and visit it hundreds of times per day (I sure do). When you use google, you are then forced to use other google add-on tools and features, google toolbar, map, satellite, google local, adwords, etc - and think of those as the add-on microsoft products that you will buy once you get married to the microsoft operating system. The bad part is once you're roped into a platform, then your future investments becomes less, sticking to the same brand and vendor. This results in platform dominance for the vendor which wins.
As a response to this threat, Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Live and Office Live. This is a major shift of the idea of Windows as a platform, to one of a web portal (with a whole bunch of add-on stuff) as the platform. This shift is made possible since it is speculated that all applications will be running over the web browser in the near future.
It's amazing, we can't stop talking about Google! They come up with innovative products in what seems like every day. They use their strong marketing engine to influence press buzz in what seems like calculated periodic intervals. The result of the buzz is stronger brand perception, and a whole bunch of “feelings” that is hard to explain. Bottom line is that the percieved value of the company keeps going up. The stock price keeps climbing. And some folks out there that own the stock GOOG kick back, smile and pop their collar :) As of today the stock price is $417 whew!
Scoble said this:
Google hasn’t even picked off all the low hanging fruit yet from the advertising industry. That’s why their stock just keeps going up and up and up.
My feeling is that Google's marketing team are so well aligned with their tech team, to the extent that they've created an engine that is able to crank out new (complimentary) products in a VERY short amount of town (in the order of tenths of the time it takes other GYMs). For example, their last few buzz creating activities, which all resulted in that increased stock value, brand perception, and everything else:
1. Google Talk. Google released a tool that combines instant messaging and internet telephony. Think skype or yahoo messenger voice (BTW a product that every other GYM has something that works, and has been in the market already for years). The marketing engine put a different spin to it. Even our developers were drooling. Why?? because it is Google, and they just came out with something new. In fact, till today, the guys think the quality is way better than yahoo's voice support over Yahoo messenger or MSN's. But from my testing, it was just a perception thing. I think our developers took a 1.5 hour break from the workday to “play“ with Google that day!! Wow.
2. Google Analytics - Google bought Urchin...rebranded it. Started offering it out free of charge. Doesn't this remind you of how the browser (internet explorer), backup, media player, firewall, netmeeting, instant messaging, and many other tools just got bundled onto the platform (Microsoft operating system) over time? Well, to ensure platform dominance, that is what a vendor has to do. That is what Microsoft had to do...and that has always been a compelling reason to use Windows. You get most of your basic needs - free of charge...no downloads needed! Unfortunately, the little guys out there, small companies that provide these type of tools for a small fee, end up going out of business. Why?? because of GYM and their quest for platform dominance. Who shall control the world!
3. Google Suggests - This one is another that i think was just a marketing ploy. I don't think anyone uses it at all. It worked in the Tech world anyway. Google got greater respect for thinking out of the box. Developers scrambled to learn what will later be known as AJAX (the word AJAX could have existed before this I'm not sure). I know our developers spent that evening trying to understand how it worked.
4. Google Picasa - picture management
And a whole lot more....what intrigues me is that the announcements are periodical. That the products are usually in BETA when they're announced. That people use the product as if it were “live“. That people are generally more tolerant of blatant bugs in Google products. And that Google has bought heart of a lot of people, through the manipulation of the mind and perception.
Look at this chart of GYM financials...
I just realized that we also have Apple on the chart. Come to think of it, it should be GYMA. I propose that we add Apple to the mix of next generation platform influencers. Apple is made a great move by announcing that their operating sytem will now support any Intel processor. To be honest, this decision is coming a little late in the game. In any case, Apple is going to influence a powerful sect of the techonology platform of the future. It will come by virtue of their dominance, brand recognition and strategies around multi-media with iTunes and iPod. I don't know how this will play out...but the marketing engine behind the iPod is another impressive one. I see some similarities between their strategy and that of Google's. The emotions that you see within the iPod user communities is similar to the ones you find with the tech-savvy general public with regards to Google.
Well, let's pay attention to what GYMA is doing, it's interesting that each one of them is coming in from a slightly different strategic advantage/focus, but the end goal for all of them is very similar.
There is a lot I have to say about some of the impressive things I've read and observed from google, especially with regards to their business model that I will like to talk about in the future. Stay tuned. For a preview, Scoble said this talking about the disruption that Google is bringing to the game, and it hit home for me...:
Looks like we’re in a similar boat. Why? Cause Google built an advertising platform — they used their dominance in search to kick into a new world and are trying to use the dominance in AdSense to get dominance in the attention sphere (through patents).
Oh, so you think Google has tapped out the advertising industry, do you? Well, look at Google Maps again. They haven’t started putting ads on that yet. Why not? They don’t need to. But, let’s say their revenues start flattening out. They only need to make two calls: one to Starbucks. One to McDonalds. The call will go something like this: “we’re ready, can you write the check?”
You KNOW Starbucks and McDonalds would love to put time-based advertising on the maps. That’s why this space is so interesting. Imagine doing a search for an address in Seattle. Starbucks could put little logos of where all their coffee stores are. Then, when you mouse over they could say “come in in the next hour and we’ll give you $1 off of a latte, just tell us this code: JXP1.”
Ogilvy Mather tested such a system with cell phones down in Australia with McDonalds and McDonalds saw per-store sales increase by something like $10,000 EACH. Per DAY!!!