Alphabet Google YouTube and Its Data Moats

March 1, 2022

Owning a monopoly on data or information is not a new concept. Owning secret knowledge is as old as humanity. Think about humans learning the secret of fire, gunpowder, medicine, and nuclear bombs. The concept seems more modern, because of computer technology. This technology only means there is more data to control in a monopoly. Seeking Alpha discusses data monopolies in: “Google Stock Is A Buy On Future Growth, Alphabet Data Moat.”

Alphabet a.k.a. Google started as a search engine that sold advertising space, but now the company is a leader in augmented reality, blockchain, and AI. Alphabet continues to grow and its endeavors yield more data moats for then to control:

“The reason why Alphabet has built several powerful data moats is that the company has become very proficient in identifying high value data, collecting that data, analyzing that data for insights and producing high value products based upon the insights gleaned from the data. The very first high value data that the founders of the company, Sergey Brin and Larry Page discovered was search data. Google established a first mover advantage in search data that grew into such a powerful data moat that even Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is unable to catch up to Google in search. Google still maintains 92.47 percent market share in search as of June 2021. Over time, Alphabet has discovered and built up other high value data sets with some of the most well-known products built upon those data sets being Maps, YouTube, Google Assistant and self-driving cars (Waymo).”

Alphabet continues to grow its data moat through constant research and development, especially in the realms of AI. The company will continue to expand and it could grow a data moat monopoly. If Alphabet does get a data moat the government is supposed to step in and break it up. That might not happen given the world’s current dilemma and how corporations have politicians in their back pockets.

Whitney Grace, March 1, 2022

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, News

Comments

Comments are closed.

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.