From search engine to disrupting 15+ industries

@dadovanpeteghem @sdwouters

Google was launched as a search engine in 1997, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two university students.

Their mission statement from the start was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

After Google went public in 2004, it started using its

information to become much more than a search engine.

Google is the ultimate Gatekeeper of information through its search engine, but it is also much more than that.

The Gatekeeper

The Frog

Google industries15+by-passing… disrupting… investing in…

Over the years, Google has vastly expanded its range of products and services and seems to be getting involved in almost every industry and aspect of our lives.

It is the organization with the most data and it enters and disrupts industry after industry, often by-passing the traditional players in it.

Google believes it will take more than switching to renewable energy sources to stop global warming,

but it still invests in it through Google Green.

Investing in energy

Through Google Fiber it has become an Internet provider, with some of the fastest speeds in the world. At the moment Fiber is only available in some cities in the USA, but there are plans to expand.

Disrupting ISP’s

Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a country where this is possible, so Project Loon will provide rural areas with Internet through floating balloons that send out a WiFi signal.

Facebook is planning to do this with Drones, and SpaceX (through a $1B

Google investment) with satellites. They all want to connect the whole world.

By-passing ISP’s

Of course the unconnected need devices too. Google is

working on its own cheap and personalized smartphones

through project Ara to connect the next 5 billion.

Disrupting smart devices

And its own smartwatches, Android Wear.

Its affordable Chromebooks and Android-based devices get heavy competition from brands like Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi,…

Operating systems

It has Google Wallet for payments and Gmail, Google+ and Hangouts for communication.

Competition in these sectors is huge though, there are lots of popular payment systems, social networks and chat apps.

Payments

Communication

Google bought YouTube for $1.65B in 2006. It has been disrupting the media for the past decade and became the second biggest search engine since 2011.

Disrupting Media

Google Forms allow people to gather insights through their own surveys.

By-passing market research

Google Maps has disrupted and by-passed transport information, even going as far as flight prices, public transport times, traffic information,…

Disrupting transport & mapping

Instead of selling through traditional retail or other webshops, Google goes directly to the customer through its own webshop.

By-passing retail

In the home appliance market it has acquired Nest, which has smart thermostats and smoke detectors, and dropcam, a home monitoring system.

Disrupting home appliance

Since 2009, Google has acquired, invested in, or merged with over 250 companies. That is

almost 1 company per week.

will make us live longer

How

While most large companies focus on purely commercial activities, our world faces more problems and challenges than our governments and leaders can ever solve. Innovative companies can help them.

Google has its own ambitions to make us live longer and healthier, through various projects that go beyond its core business of information.

Google has a crisis response kit to support disaster relief, including a Person

Finder, Public Alerts and Crisis Maps.

By-passing governments and humanitarian aid

Its self-driving cars will drastically lower traffic accidents, reduce CO2 emissions and free up a lot of our time.

Disrupting Automotive

Google acquired Boston Dynamics, a company that is creating robots that may one day perform or aid

in tasks that humans would have to take risks for.

Investing in Robotics

How will we continue to feed our ever growing population when half of our food gets thrown away? Google aims to

find answers to this through Future Food 2050.

Disrupting Food

Healthcare is another area with a lot of unsolved problems. Google is working on nanoparticles that can swim through your blood to identify diseases and a bracelet that can identify cancer.

Disrupting Healthcare

Testing nowadays often happens on animals and in later stages on humans. Google is creating synthetic human

skin on which tests can be performed in the future.

Disrupting Healthcare

Its smart contact lens will even allow people with diabetes to manage their disease and help visually impaired or blind people with their eyesight.

Disrupting Healthcare

In 2015 Google will be investing even more in companies that

slow aging, battle diseases and thus lengthen our lives.

By-passing Healthcare

Energy

ISP

Smart devices

Operating systems

Payments

Communication

Media

Market research

Transportation

Retail

Home appliances

Optics Healthcare

Robotics

Automotive

Food

Product testing

Humanitarian aid

more…

and we are probably missing some…

is much more than a search engine, it is in 15+ industries

Are you ready to deal with the invasion of Google and others in your industry?

Our book on Digital Transformation can help you to anticipate disruption and take your future in your own hands.

digitaltransformationbook.com