Description: Google is preparing to roll out a service to let consumers store photos and other content online, a source familiar with the matter said, pushing into a market now dominated by the likes of Dropbox and Box.
Source: globe and mail .com
Date: April 24, 2012
Google’s “cloud storage” offering will incorporate search capabilities and allow users to store pictures, notes and other documents on the Internet and access them from any Web-connected device.
Consumers will get 5 gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 gigabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said.
It was not immediately clear how much Google will charge for the premium versions. Read Rest of Story
Questions for discussion:
1. What is Google’s competitive strategy to try to beat its competitors in this market space of online storage?
2. What is Google’s target market in this online storage venture?
crystal s.
Google will be offering a new type of storage or cloud storage that will enable users to store anything from pictures , notes, and documents with the ability to access them from any web based device. In order for Google to remain competitive this new feature, called Google Drive, will be offered for free up to the usage of 5 GB. If consumers want more features or more storage capacity up to 100GB they will have to pay a monthly fee for the premium service. The main target market is those businesses that advertise on Google. This target market makes up 96% of the $38 billion revenue that Google earns (2011). With Google being the number 1 search engine, offering this new service will only make them more successful. Current users will be more apt to use Google Drive than trying to start a new storage space with other competitors out there. When added, this new feature simply converts all existing files and data to Google Drive without having to copy or paste, making it more convenient and easy to start using. This ease of transferring files and data is what makes Google Drive more attractive.
Amby O
Very interesting read indeed. I think it’s only fair that google charges a fee for the premium space as they will eventually. Other cloud services do so why wouldn’t they? They will obviously have competitors such as dropbox, box and other services that offer the same thing. These days, microsoft, google and even apple are fighting for competitors attention. I do have a feeling that as the years go by, they will increase the storage space because more companies will get involved and want to offer more space to customers therefore causing the rest of the competitors to increase their storage space as well. It’s a fantastic thing to do as i have been using dropbox for a while now and it is extremely convenient. Google has the right to not comment on speculations because other companies might know their strategy and build off of that. I think as an individual, you don’t really need more free space than what google is going to offer. How much stuff does one need to store? How much are you doing except if you’re storing every single thing on your computer? (Backing up your pc) which in that case you may need to invest in an external hard drive.
Ali Almasoud
Well, I think it is a good idea to have an “E-drive” that enables us to access the the data and information we store from any computer through the internet. I think the target market will be both small business and individuals. Although individuals are more likely to use this feature in Google ,especially for students and those who are so mobile, I think Google can improve the service and expand it to small business so small business can access not only their stored files, but the day to day transactions that might be stored online. Although it is a good idea to have this service, I think some people may not use it as long as it costs money due to the fact that people are storing their files online by the email(even though it can be more efficient in the “E-drive)
Andrew D.
THe competitive strategy google is using to try to beat its competitors such as dropbox and box are to include features and applications that only they can provide. Such features are the ability to use Googles image search datebase which will work with Google Drive so that you can find pictures from PDFs that you have saved etc, and this will be hard for the other companies to emulate. Googles target market in this online storage venture is basically everyone who wants to be able to save things using cloud storage. Large revenue sources will likely be full companies and cotporations who want to be able to save to the could, but it will likely be widely used by everyday people who want to be able to access their data and pictures anywhere they are.
Marli Hadden
It is not surprising that Google is moving to compete in the cloud storage marketplace because it seems like a natural and upgraded extension of the already widely used GoogleDocs service. Their competitive strategy will be the sophisticated image search technology that will allow consumers to sift through a wide variety of document types. This search technology being attached to the #1 search engine in the world will give it an advantage over other cloud storage providers such as Dropbox. From the article it seemed like Google was planning to target the individual who wants to utilize cloud storage for their own pictures, music, and documents rather than the business. I would suspect though that Google will eventually expand its market to adapt to the needs of businesses who could benefit from this service as well. My only concern here is regarding security. With people using cloud computing for both personal and business reasons, I think that the service that provides the best security to the information stored on these sites will win the competition for marketshare in this area.