Weakness: A major weakness of Alphabet is their overdependence on revenue from

advertising. “Google is very vulnerable to the changes in the digital advertising market due to
increase in competition, query growth rates which are unlike ever before, and the evolution of
the online advertising market” (Insight). Other factors that could severely hinder Google are
changes in advertising offerings that arise due to new technological revolutions, advertising
trends that they are not part of, and user preferences. “Another weakness is their excessive
reliance on secrecy which has caused many experts to point out the company for being
opaque, but in recent years, Google has tried to address this by providing another version of
its algorithm” (Insight). Finally, Google merchandises lack compatibility with next
generation devices which hampers the corporation and roots worry.

Opportunities: “A important opportunity to note for Google is the growing market for
subscription-based video on demand services such as YouTube” (Insight). Youtube is now
the most popular video on demand streaming platform in the world, with more than 1 billion
users. This includes comparison to Hulu and Netflix, which are competitors to YouTube.
According to a market research study, this market is expected to grow by 9.3% on average
from 2017 to 2024. The Android OS has become a big competitor for Apple and Samsung
which gives the company a potential opportunity. Diversification into non-ad business
models such as Google Books and Google Maps pushes the company to remain profitable
and is an indication that the company is adapting itself and pushing towards commercial
transactions. “Google Glasses and Google Play are also evolutionary moments into the
emerging world of nano-computing and beneficial to the company in the future” (Insight).
Lastly, Cloud computing is a key opportunity since the company can provide a solution for
cloud storage shortages which is and will be a major way to store data.

Threats: “Reliability and user experience of the Android OS may decrease significantly sue to
increasing fragmentation” (Insight). Android had released several versions each one named
after something sweet, such as Donut, Éclair, Jelly Bean, etc. For example, Gingerbread’s
distribution is .03%, Jelly Bean 4.5%, KitKat 10.5% Lollipop 22.9%, and Oreo 4.6%. “The
other threat would be from companies like Facebook, which seriously threaten Google in the
internet world and make the company have to deal with the increasing features available on
Social Media” (Insight).

Web Dominance and Data Collecting

Dominance in web search, video content sharing, online advertising, mobile OS, browser
usage and many other markets isn’t done by chance. Google dominates most of the market it
operates within because of efficient and accurate data collecting. By analyzing the habits and
patterns of their user they gain a huge advantage with the massive amount of data they obtain.
Using the data, they can target specific users using an algorithm to promote or advertise for a
specific brand the user researched before. Google targets individuals based on their search
history, most visited sites, most bought products, etc. This is why they dominate the market.
They use their platform to grow brand awareness, which is the leading contributor to their
profits, and use that power over customers and users. The amount of data collecting by
Google is so large that it gives Google power and dominance over not only its users, but its
suppliers, and competitors and will continue to dominate in this way in the foreseeable future.
There are no companies in this market that have nearly as much dominance and ability to
acquire data comparable, even in the slightest, to Google.