Can Indian Search Engines Ever Tackle The Google Threat?
A recent Comscore report about the state of the search engines in India states the obvious – Google is an undisputed leader in the space with close to 88.4% market share. The remaining dozen is shared by big names like Yahoo and Microsoft along with local search engines like Guruji, AskLaila and JustDial.
So statistically speaking, despite remaining in the space for close to 3-4 years and in spite of having offered more local search services, the Indian companies have hardly given Google a fight. Is that how we need to interpret the results and will the Indian search engines will ever be able to catch up?
To answer the questions, we need to relook at the definition of “search” in the first place. ‘Search’ did not essentially start with Google. While we search for ‘How to lose weight‘ on Google today, it was basically done with library books. While we might use Burrp to look for the daily events in our city today, we used the newspapers earlier. So, while Comscore reports the online market share of the various search engines in India, it is inconsequential until we realize what the core business model of each of the various engines is.
For example, thanks to the extensive TV promotion, more people should be aware of JustDial’s telephone search than the search through its website. A lot of search happens on Guruji over the mobile, which possibly is not tracked. If ‘online search’ was the segment Comscore tracked, then their report make sense. If ’search’ as an activity was tracked, then in all probability the results do not reveal the real picture.
All this is not to say that the Indian search engines have been given a raw deal. My point is simply that search as an activity is not confined to the online space alone in India and so while the reports do give an idea of the emerging players in the industry, it does not necessarily mean Company A is definitely bigger than Company B because of the higher market share.
Having said that, it is also important to see how well are Indian companies placed in tackling the Google threat in the online space. It is important to note that Google is bigger than the rest of the search engines, not because of a superior search algorithm, but because of a superior brand positioning. Indian local search engines like Onyomo, AskLaila all have pretty similar offering (movies, shopping, restaurants,etc.).
Assuming movie search contributes a significant volume of searches on these websites, how are the websites going to cope if Google decides to integrate Google Movies into their search results? Would these services remain relevant if Google were to similarly launch services for local restaurants, music, etc. assuming they are not available already?
There comes an important factor in countering Google. Let’s face it – Google cannot be broken by one big Indian search giant, but hundreds of small search engines focusing on only aspect of search – like JustDial for telephone based search, Burrp for events, etc. That will help each of these search engines carve a niche search audience and can stand the Google threat as an authority in the space.
An alternative to this strategy would be aggressive advertising to create an alternate search engine brand. But then, despite a $100 million promo budget, Bing was only able to garner a 10% odd market share!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!
Leave a Comment and Follow the replies through Post Comment Feed