Matt Brittin, Google Inc.'s new head for Northern and Central Europe, has that angular edge about him of a man who was once a world-class athlete. It isn't just his wiry frame; he still has the focus that an Olympic-medal-winning rower needs.
Given Google's at times fractious relationship with diverse European authorities, Mr. Brittin is going to need this focus. He inherits a history of legal cases involving the U.S. search giant across the Continent, as well as concerns over privacy, copyright disputes and taxation, to say nothing of investigations by the European Commission into allegations of anticompetitive behavior.
The 43-year-old Briton also takes on the mantel from Philipp Schindler at a time when the company has signaled a change in attitude. David C. Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said in May: "We're really trying to work with folks in Europe to establish ourselves as more of a local player." It is up to Mr. Brittin, who won medals with the British rowing team in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, to lead the team.
He suggests that a lot of the reasons for the anger at the search giant is down to companies feeling threatened by new technology. "The Internet has touched a lot of people in a very rapid period," he says. "Ten years ago, e-commerce was nowhere; now it is a huge contributor to GDP. It is not surprising that the Internet has been disruptive to a lot of businesses."
"For the people being disrupted," he says, "and many of them are newspapers and are somewhat vociferous about the impact on them, there is an element of the reporting clamor around these things being heightened...What I would say is that there is a job to do in terms of education and understanding and saying how Internet companies like ours can help them deal with those challenges."
Mr. Brittin remains phlegmatic about the numerous investigations being made into Google's activities. "It is not surprising, given our popularity and the scale of the Internet, that greater scrutiny comes with that. We are very happy to help the inquires that are going on. We have a job to do to explain how we operate. If there are things we can do to improve that then we are absolutely happy to cooperate. One has to expect that from time to time, not least in the context of the Internet growing rapidly and Google seen as being at the forefront of the Internet, or the gateway to the Internet."
Part of the investigations by the European Commission will be questions of whether Google is abusing its market position. While different organizations measure traffic in different ways, according to Hitwise, Google captured some 91% or more of search traffic in the U.K. Other sources have estimated Google's market share to exceed 90% in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Belgium and Hungary.
Does this make Google a de facto monopoly?
Mr. Brittin shies away from the term. "No," he says. "When you think about how people look for things online, we are one of many options. Amongst the generalist search engines, it is true that we are by far the most popular in Europe. But when you look at how consumers actually search for things, most people use Google in combination with a range of other services. It might be Yahoo or Bing, but, in the U.K. for example, it is often Monster for jobs, or Autotrader for cars, or Moneysupermarket for financial services, and so on."
"People can find an alternative and move to one at the click of a mouse," he says. "There is no lock-in or control. We are different from those kinds of companies that we sometimes get compared with for all sorts of reasons. Every user has a choice.
"Our focus is making search work incredibly well for consumers, and the reason we are popular is because we do a good job. We know that the consumer will go wherever they get the best results for them, and there are alternatives for them to go to."
However, he says the company isn't trying to walk away from its responsibilities. "We do take our responsibilities very seriously and we are very happy to explain how we operate to any authorities and we are collaborating to explain how we operate and look at our business practices."
But Mr. Brittin, echoing the words of Mr. Drummond, is keen to explain how Google's attitude in Europe has changed, and how the company has tried to become a part of the European technology scene. In December, French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened Google's new Parisian headquarters, a gesture that shows how far the rapprochement between the two sides has come. France had been vociferous in its objections to Google's ideas for scanning books and making them available online. "We are not going to be stripped of our heritage for the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is," Mr. Sarkozy said in December 2009.
"Over the last few years as the Internet has become more important in Europe and Google has become more successful, I think we have hired local people and got closer to the businesses and consumers and interest groups and authorities in each of those countries," says Mr. Brittin. "Keep in mind we are only 12 years old, but what we are trying to do is think about ways in which we can play our role that are attuned to the different issues in each of those markets."
"The things we have done in France reflect the ways in which we think we can play our part with the French," he says. "We launched the Humboldt institute [an independent academic body founded to examine the evolution of the Internet and its impact on society, science, politics and the economy] in Germany; I think that is more in line with the agenda in Germany. In the U.K. we have invested in East London with the start-ups."
"In France it is about culture," he says, "in Germany it is about understanding, managing and protecting rights and opportunities, and in the U.K. it is more about start-ups and the Internet economy. Those three are good examples of the different concerns in those markets."
And as Google has matured and grown, its outlook has changed from being a Californian company pushing its products out into the world, into a global company responding to local initiatives. "When I started it felt much more like people in California making stuff and everybody implementing. Now it feels much more like a global team, understanding the different challenges around the world."
Foremost among those challenges in Europe is the state of the economy, an area in which he believes Google can play a big part.
"Top of my agenda for the opportunity for Europe is the Internet is like a life raft for our economy...We know it is big as a proportion of GDP. It brings growth, it brings exports, it brings jobs," he says. "The opportunity for a European business to become an international business using the Internet is much easier and much faster than ever before."
He rattles off statistics: for every job destroyed by technology, 2.6 new jobs are created; online businesses are growing twice as fast, employing double the number of people and exporting twice the number of people. "The Internet economy, for example in the U.K., is 7% of GDP. Across Europe it accounts for 10%-13% of GDP in the biggest economies.
Furthermore, we are talking about 10% of GDP growth having come from the Internet economy. We are talking about a significant number of jobs created. Small businesses using the economy are growing at double the speed of those not using it."
"I will give you a couple of examples. There is a business in Scotland called ScotWeb. They sell traditional Scottish clothing. In the Old World you had a shop in Edinburgh and you hope you attract as much passing trade as possible; you might get some people to sign up for a catalog. Now, any time someone types 'tartan' into Google they can come up with a great website. Over 70% of their sales are now outside Scotland."
"There is also this amazing business in Belgium, a donkey farm. Amongst the milk products they also have a range of skin-care products. They are now doing over €1 million in business and they are exporting as far afield as [South] Korea," Mr. Brittin says. "I pick those two because they are clearly very niche businesses that would have previously have had constrained marketplace that can suddenly be global. The big story is the growth opportunity for Europe."
read more: Olympus Wealth Management
No comments:
Post a Comment