Abstract

The case is organized into different sections. The first section is about the background and history of Google and the introduction of Google +. The next section is about the social networking market and the top players in it, followed by Google’s previous attempts at social networking. It then talks about the various features of Google +, the initial response to it, and the response by the competitors. The case focuses on understanding the growing importance of social networking websites for the advertisers as well as their growing popularity among people over the world using the story of Google — the search engine and Internet giant as a struggling player in the social networking arena, trying to compete against established players like Facebook and Twitter. The case also highlights the previous unsuccessful attempts by Google with its ‘Buzz’ and ‘Wave’, to understand why they did not do well. The questions that this case puts forward are whether Google has a real chance of succeeding this time with its Google + and whether it had finally got its attempt right. This case is designed for MBA level students, and is intended to be a part of the IT & Systems/ Services Marketing curriculum. This case is also suitable for Strategy.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the scene of social networking websites and the competition existing there.
• Understand the issues and challenges in managing networked businesses.
• Understand whether social networks are a ‘winners take all’ market.
• Understand how network markets are different from other markets.
• Discuss the strategies of Google regarding entry into the field of social networking and how they learned from their previous mistakes.

Keywords

Competition, Managing networked businesses, Strategy, Social networking, Social media, Microblogging, Google +, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Orkut, Wave,Buzz