Google is in danger of becoming a company that everyone wants to see fail, according to a panellist at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Online’.
One of today’s talking points was the possible take-over of Yahoo! by Microsoft and the effect consolidation could have on both the market and its main player, Google. On the panel was Richard Firminger, regional sales director, northern Europe at Yahoo!, who also left the company today.
Unable to speak about the deal directly, Firminger instead commented on online ad giant Google, saying: “Google is the most successful company that companies do not like doing business with.
“Almost every single time we [Yahoo!] go to a company that’s considering partnering with Google they say ‘give us every reason possible, please, to not do business with Google’ and it is in danger of being the ITV of the internet.
“It is in danger of being a company that everyone eventually wants to see fail. Although driving it are consumers who love it and it’s very difficult to see how that success is going to be dented. But I do think that whatever we do we have to provide choice.”
Fellow panelists Sheryl Norman, digital director, UK, at Omnicom Media Group and Adam Freeman, commercial director at Guardian News & Media, were not surprised by the apparent move towards consolidation, although Freeman said he was concerned by the way some internet businesses have been buying up talent and destroying the “ecosystem” around them.
He also emphasised the position of power that Google enjoys and stressed the need for a serious rival: “Google needs competition. For us, Google is like Tesco; if we’re not on their shelves, no one finds our product.
“Tesco makes us wrap our product in a plastic bag to put on the shelves at the weekends because we have to be as effective for them as tin cans. Google is the same thing; unless you play by their rules you can’t get found and if no one finds you, you’re dead.”
Louise Ainsworth, MD EMEA at Nielsen Online, added that the top priority is creating better ways of focusing on the consumer and enabling advertisers to “tap into the consumer’s mind-space – if consolidation can facilitate that then great. If it doesn’t facilitate it then that will be not such a good thing”.
Yahoo! yesterday turned down Microsoft’s $45 billion (£23 billion) takeover bid, saying that it substantially undervalues the company.
The bid would have seen Microsoft pay $31 in cash and shares, valuing Yahoo! at just under $45 billion.
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