![]() While at the moment it needs existing phone networks to function, there's reason to believe the company will at some point begin offering phone service of its own, or at the very least work with mobile carriers (as it is with its Android mobile phone operating system) to create a Google-branded telecommunications experience. ![]() Google Voice has the potential to creatively destroy the telephone industry. Google Voice combines SMS and voice messages into one in-box. (To be fair, Craigslist has had a big hand in the destruction of the newspaper business, too.) But I do think that the traditional business model for journalism will have to be destroyed before it is rebuilt for the Web. I also believe it's a positive development that writers now know immediately when they've written something their readers like. I am convinced that there is a creative way around this destruction, since telling a good story has always been one of the most prized skills in society, and creativity does not survive being put in a box. Journalism faces destruction because journalists and their publishers learn to fear risk-taking. The money leaves a clearer trail than it ever did, and publishers follow it, opting for the production of sure hits. When traffic to stories is gated by PageRank and search, and stories are directly monetized, only the top page-turning stories make money. But there's little question that Google's prevailing business model is predicated on landing smack in the middle of existing markets.Īt this week's Google I/O conference, browser app and Google platform developers vie for attention. And many of these markets, such as journalism, are easy pickings. New technologies and new consumer trends have made some change inevitable. ![]() Of course, Google is hardly the only reason these industries are facing disruption. ![]() But companies with older models to protect are having a hard time adjusting. Some new companies are figuring out how to work in a world where they have limited direct access to the consumer and very little brand loyalty. How do other companies make money and build loyalty among consumers when their services become commodities, access to which is doled out by Google? Their business models are getting destroyed-perhaps deservedly so, though not always. Google makes money from traffic to these gateway sites, as well as, oftentimes, from the sites it directs traffic to. Google is steadily implementing a strategy, across many markets, of building services that sit right in front of the user and that act as gateways between the user and other online services. ![]()
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