Google's future is in serious crisis: half of mobile phone users do not search the web
Kaivps.com reported on October 22: Web search engine became the second wave of technology wave of the Internet after the comprehensive portal, and Google became the star enterprise of the year. However, in the era of mobile Internet, search engines characterized by low efficiency of information retrieval are falling into a crisis that no one is using gradually.
Recently, the research results of industry experts pointed out that Google will face a serious crisis of survival and transformation on the mobile end, because nearly half of smartphone users never use web search, and APP has replaced search engines as consumers' access to information and services on mobile phones.
This will be bad news for the search engine industry represented by Google. For Google, its open source operating system Android has monopolized the market, but Google is still unable to obtain new revenue from Android phones representing the future direction.
According to the US technology news website BGR, Charles Arthur, the technology writer of the British Guardian, recently conducted a study on the use of search engines for mobile devices around the world. He concluded that half of mobile phone users never use search every day. In other words, Google, whose main business is search engine, cannot obtain search advertising revenue from half of mobile phone users.
Similar research reports have been published before. In the era of smart phones, people's interest in traditional web search engines has declined, resulting in a decline of about 20% in the total number of searches, including computers and mobile phones.
Although it is too early to say that search engine is a sunset industry, it is certain that search engine services have already passed the peak period and started to decline from the high position.
Arthur, the above industry insider, said that the main reason why people use search engines less often on smart phones is various mobile apps (software).
People use a certain mobile software to complete specific tasks, such as Facebook, Yahoo or various email tools. People will search for food nearby through a food booking tool, or search for tickets and nearby hotels through an online travel software. Instead of typing keywords for tickets or restaurants into search engines, as in the past.
The expert also pointed out that many netizens are too lazy to enter website addresses when visiting ordinary websites. They will also enter website keywords in the address bar and click to visit websites. This is not really a web search service in the true sense, but Google can still display search ads and earn income.
American media pointed out that, ironically, an important purpose of Google's development and promotion of the Android operating system is to promote traditional web search engine services. Google hopes that the search box can appear in a prominent position on Android phones. In fact, Google's search service is also integrated into most Android phones around the world, But the reality is that Android phone users use Google's search frequency is not as high as Google expected.
Arthur pointed out that up to now, Android operating system has become very popular, but due to the declining interest of mobile phone users in web search, search advertising cannot become Google's successful mobile Internet business model.
He said that, like Apple, Google's most important business model in the Android ecosystem is still the store through applications and digital content.
In contrast to Google, Apple's most important source of profit in the mobile Internet is the sales of consumer electronics hardware. Internet services, digital content services, software stores and other revenue contributions to Apple are not high. For the fluctuation of hardware business, Apple began to expand Internet services in the past year, such as the launch of Apple News Client, Apple Music Client and other products.
In the eyes of many consumers, today's web search engine service is becoming a product that is flooded with the results of "junk marketing websites" and has extremely low information retrieval efficiency. It has not adapted to the technological development and user needs of the mobile Internet era.
Take searching for a hotel for example. In the professional travel APP, mobile phone users can quickly get the list of the nearest hotels, check the room price, and make a reservation in one step. In the web search engine, users will see a large number of top marketing web page results and their own needs are not bright. They also need to turn the page several times to query relevant information, and they also need to click to open the original website to book rooms or learn more details.
Industry experts pointed out that in the era of smart phones, various vertical APP clients have become mainstream applications. The slow loading speed of web pages and websites and poor user experience have become increasingly marginalized technologies. The traditional search engine, which takes capturing and searching ancient web pages as its own responsibility, will also gradually follow the WEB technology into decline.
