Great Tech Entrepreneurs:
Larry Page & Sergey Brin
Larry Page[1]
(born March 26, 1973) is an American computer scientist and an Internet
entrepreneur; Sergey Brin[2]
(born August 21, 1973) is a Russian computer scientist, internet entrepreneur,
and philanthropist (who moved to the US at age 6). He earned his bachelor's
degree at the University of Maryland. He then moved to Stanford to get a PhD in
computer science, where in 1995 he met Larry Page who would become his
Co-Founder at Google[3].
The Economist has referred to Brin as an "Enlightenment Man", someone
who believes that "knowledge is always good, and certainly always better
then ignorance", a philoshophy that is summed up by Google's mission
statement "Organize the world's information and make it universally
accessible and useful", and an unofficial motto, "Don't be
evil".
They had a dream of
downloading the whole web. At that point the most famous Search Engine was
Altavista[4],
which did not provide orderly or proper results. Page and Brin run experiments
by creating large datasets to look for patterns and better ways to search. They
found a great formula, and came up with the name Google. Google had a different
algorithm and helped the users explore the Wide Web, differentiating themselves from other Searchers. Google caught the attention of Venture
Capitalists, who invested to take the project off the ground. They then came to
an agreement with NetScape, which drove traffic into Google. They hired
the best engineers they could get hold off. However, as always in Tech
industry, monetization was a challenge. It was not so important at this stage,
since the most important was to continue building the business and the brand. The
homepage was designed by Sergey Brin and focused on the user-experience, and
was built for speed. They were against advertising to keep the experience
"clean". Eventually they had to accept some advertising to create
revenue. Instead of pop-ups or flashing ads, they displayed the ads above and
next to the search results in what they called "Google Adwords".
By the year 2000,
Google was one of the largest Search Engines in the world. The VCs wanted a
professional CEO and selected Eric Schimdt[5].
Page and Brin took positions as Presidents. Google kept spectacular growth
while the other Search Engines faded. Google had millions of back-links to Websites
and partnered with AOL to get even more customers. It went public in 2004,
with an outstanding 23 billion USD valuation. Additional services were added,
such as Google Maps, Google News and Google Earth.
YouTube began a as
home page to display and search for videos. Google had a similar concept:
Google Video, but it was too slow. Google understood that video was going to be
a dominant for of content for the Media, and acquired YouTube for 1.65 Billion
USD. Google also acquired a small company with software for cell-phones:
Android. In this way, Google secured an open door into the mobile business.
Google's main competition became Microsoft. From Browsers (Google Chrome vs.
Internet Explorer), to online Softwares to process spreadsheets, participation
in the mobile business (Android vs. Windows Phone), etc. In a turn of direction, Google Street View[6]
appears as an attempt to register every corner on Earth and include it in a
unique database. The idea of diversification comes from the fact that Google is
getting 95% of it's revenue from advertising. Google TV brings everything
you love about the Web, to your Television. It is an attempt to deliver Online
content to the TV set.
Google has changed
the world by making information more accessible. The information has always
been there, but by compiling it, making it easier to find, filtering and
understanding it, it has made search much more efficient. Before, if you wanted to
read a book, a newspaper, a magazine, you had to buy it at your local store. Now,
all of this information can be accessed by the click of a mouse. The way we
study, the way we work, the way we connect has changed drastically in the last
decade. The Web presents itself as an infinite source of knowledge, which we
have not yet learned to capitalize. Before, information was scarce. Now, it is
too abundant. The Rise of Big Data refers to data sets that are so large or complex
that traditional data processing applications are inadequate to deal with
them. Google presents us an excellent example of the billionaire business
of compiling information. If you wish to learn more about the "NeXT
Industries", refer to my 4th Book "Where No Man Has Gone Before: the
Road to the Fourth Industrial Revolution".
Cristian Bøhnsdalen
CMO/CFO & Co-Founder @ITRevolusjonen
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