The web has become a perfect place to launch a new business, and it many respects it is the great equalizer. Companies such as FreshBooks, Octopz, Open Text and Kaboose have come along and dominated their particular sub-sectors. They have also been recoginzed by many across Canada as recipients of this year’s PICK 20 awards which I was one of the judges for organized by Backbone Magazine and KPMG.
Whether you love or hate Google, they certainly have built an impressive arsenal of services for consumers and professionals such as Gmail, YouTube and Google AdSense. Recently the company added some updates to their Google Analytics product that some feel put it closer into direct competition with Omniture and WebTrends. How did Google become an enterprise player? A few simple acquisitions over the years
- March 28, 2005 Urchin Software Corporation
- February 14, 2006 Measure Map
- March 16, 2007 Trendalyzer
- April 13, 2007 DoubleClick
The world is moving towards a new economy and let’s face it, a large portion of the population will opt for free versus paid solutions, especially if they can deliver same or very similar benefits. Google’s recent quarter ended with $5.54 billion in revenues compared to last week’s quarter end for Omniture of $82.4 million, needless to say Google is also sitting on a pile of cash in the bank which help position them for further acquisition in the coming year. Looking back to 2004, I’m sure that Omniture and WebTrends did not expect that a the company who had a search engine would be in their rear view mirror and looking to take first place.
