Googzilla Versus the Bezos Bulldozer: Shopping Search, Ads, and Sales
October 9, 2020
The battle between the two ethical outfits is becoming more interesting. “Google Tries to Turn YouTube into a Major Shopping Destination” reports that there will be more advertising than ever on the precursor to TikTok. The write up reports:
The world’s largest video site recently started asking creators to use YouTube software to tag and track products featured in their clips. The data will then be linked to analytics and shopping tools from parent Google. The goal is to convert YouTube’s bounty of videos into a vast catalogue of items that viewers can peruse, click on and buy directly, according to people familiar with the situation. The company is also testing a new integration with Shopify for selling items through YouTube.
The essay / analysis includes another sourceless factoid:
However, the pandemic has hammered marketing budgets, particularly in the travel and physical retail sectors that are major Google advertisers. Meanwhile, e-commerce has boomed as people stay home and order more products online. That’s left Google watching from the sidelines as rivals such as Facebook and its Instagram app become hotbeds of online shopping. Amazon, the US e-commerce Goliath, has seen sales soar, while Google suffered its first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter.
There may be some other facets to this concern; for example:
- Amazon’s product search function may be taking bulldozer-sized chunks out of Google search traffic. One of my research team’s estimates pegged the downturn at about 35 percent in the last year.
- The Google has a history of getting excited and then failing; for example, Froogle and Google Plus. Shopping is of interest now, but as the competitive toll is collected, the Googlers eager to work on a bonus-guaranteed project may look elsewhere for career satisfaction.
- The write up suggests that Google may not have worked out some of the administrivia to cash in on products in YouTube videos appropriately tagged by “creators” who might be skeptical of the actual payoff for their “creativity.”
To sum up: If the write up is accurate, Googzilla may have to investigate acquiring more firepower; for example, Shopify, Dr. Scott Galloway’s favorite stock to hype.
Worth watching. Googzilla Confronts the Bezos Bulldozer, a Netflix original.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2020
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