It has been three years since the European Commission started examining alleged claims that Google was misusing its supremacy as a search engine, and it seems that the two sides have reached an agreement. As reported by the Financial Times, a settlement would be reached where Google avoids formal charges and heavy fines which were consequently 7 years ago put on Microsoft. In May 2012, Joaquin Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner assembled a list of concerns relating to Google, which is said to account for more than 90% of searches in Europe.

–          Google favors its specialized search services over others and that Google had an agreement with companies that used its advertising, that they would be included in results after similar searches.

–          The search engine was copying content from its competitors.

–          Advertisers couldn’t easily transfer from Google to others.

Google will solve these concerns by clearly labeling the advertisements that are in contract with the search engine, giving more freedom to competitors, preventing bias. The result of this investigation will be that Google will esthetically look different to Europeans. However, with this investigation over, Google is not released from the limelight, as recent report stated that mobile OS providers wanted the Commission to look into the dominance of Android, Google’s mobile operating system. Personally I like the fact that the IT industry has this form of investigations because it eliminates the bias and monopoly which can ensue, and benefits the users of such technology.

Sources:

Schumpeter, Joseph. “A Flavour of Utility.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 06 Oct. 2013. <http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/04/google-and-european-commission>.

Source: Interbrand

Apple is now the most valuable brand in the world according to a detailed research report presented by Interbrand, a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by Omnicom Group which has been researching and compiling the World’s most valuable brands since 2000. Coca-Cola which was on top for 13 years has now fallen to number 3, behind Apple and Google. Jez Frampton, global chief executive at Interbrand said in a recent interview: “Apple’s arrival in the top spot was perhaps a matter of time.” Apple was No. 2 last year, climbing from No. 8 in the 2011 report. The report estimates that Apple brand is worth roughly $98.3 billion, up 28% from 2012 report. The value of the Coca-Cola brand also rose by 2% to $79.2 billion, but that was insufficient to retain its position as Interbrand’s World Number 1 for the 14 year in a row. Google, which rose from fourth place last year, also overtook Coca-Cola. In fact, of the top 10 Best Global Brands for 2013 five are in the tech field: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung which came in at 8^th place, and Intel which came in at 9^th.  However not all technology brands fared well on the list as an ample amount of them tumbled down, or even failed to make it within the top 100. BlackBerry, which we discussed in class earlier this month, disappeared from the list and Nokia was considered the ‘biggest faller’ dropping from 19^th to 57^th place.

Sources:

Elliott, Stuart. “Apple Passes Coca-Cola as Most Valuable Brand.” The New York Times. N.p., 29 Sept. 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/business/media/apple-passes-coca-cola-as-most-valuable-brand.html?src=recg&_r=0>.

The social-networking service Twitter has reported that three fourths of its 218 million monthly average users from June to October were from outside of the United States. Twitter stated that it has earned more advertising revenue from its US users than from foreign. In order to enhance its advertising experience at a global level, it plans to increase advertising in France, Argentina, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa in order to make its offerings more sophisticated. Twitter said that 65% of its revenue came from mobile ads. However, Twitter faces many challenges in trying to expand its services in developing countries. These up and coming markets have many problems. For instance, many emerging market users do not posses smart phones that are compatible with Twitter, meaning that the quantity of overseas users depends on the popularity of higher-end smart phones.  Another problem that Twitter like many other social networks face, is the ban by authoritarian governments, such as the ban of social networks in mainland China for security reasons. Finally, Twitter faces the problem of getting people’s time, partly due to the emergence of other applications such as Whatsapp, WeChat, which offer private communication through voice and message in comparison to Twitter which is primarily public communication. While US domestic agencies might use Twitter to track individuals, the fact that it has US roots gives it credibility to international users, primarily those living in authoritarian regimes.

A Twitter app on a smartphone in Berlin. Three-quarters of Twitter’s users in the three months through June were outside of the United States, the company said.

Sources:

Jolly, David, and Mark Scott. “Twitter’s I.P.O. Plan Has an International Focus.” The New York Times. N.p., 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <Twitter’s I.P.O. Plan Has an International Focus>.

HTC, the Taiwanese technology giant has recently reported an early quarterly loss ($101 million in the third quarter). The tech giant is suffering from the growth in the lower-end smart phone market and the pressure from new competitors, mostly in China. HTC primarily produces high end models where it competes with Samsung, however Samsung dominates as it is currently the biggest producer of smart phones on both ends of the spectrum and also produces memory chips that are used by companies such as rival Apple. HTC has found itself in a bad position as it is stuck competing with Samsung, and isn’t exploring the lower end market where Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei, all Chinese companies are gaining major recognition. Horace Dediu, an independent telecommunications analyst in Helsinki, Finland, stated that it would be very difficult for HTC to recover based on past evidence. It is usually very common for a phone maker to sell its handset business or leave the phone business years after a first quarterly loss is posted. For instance Motorola lasted 5 years, Nokia and BlackBerry only 2. I honestly believe that HTC will overcome this loss and continue to produce high quality primarily Android-based smart phones as it has been doing ever since it launched the Desire series in 2010. What Motorola, Nokia and BlackBerry have in common is that they did not switch to Android which holds well above majority of the mobile OS market. 

Sources:

Pfanner, Eric. “HTC Reports Its First Loss, but Samsung Shows Vigor.” The New York Times. N.p., 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/technology/htc-suffers-first-quarterly-loss-as-samsung-soars.html?ref=business&_r=0>.