There is a rumor circulating on Wall Street that Google is about to buy Expedia. As such, shares of the travel site are up nearly 10% this week, though both companies are issuing the standard “we don’t comment on rumors and speculation” statements. The prevailing wisdom is that this deal is unlikely, because Google’s generates a lot of revenue from ads placed in search results by companies that compete with Expedia. This viewpoint is articulated in a piece at The Motley Fool:
“As the paid-search leader, Google relies on travel portals like Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN), Travelocity, and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) to bid for placement on its travel-related search results. Things could get hairy if Google snaps up Expedia. Sleeping with the enemy is one thing. Paying for its fare and making a rival stronger in the process, is another.”
However, this argument completely ignores the fact that Google routinely advertises its own products side-by-side with those of paid advertisers. For example, try any of the following searches and you will see an ad for the corresponding Google-owned product:
“web based office” – see ad as for Google Apps
“photo storage” – see an ad for Picasa
“start a blog” – see an ad for Blogger
Add to the fact that Google now integrates YouTube thumbnails into search results and you get the point: Google has no problem in advertising its own services side-by-side with companies that pay them for each click.
As for Expedia, acquiring it would represent only about 5% of Google’s total market capitalization – a relatively small acquisition, albeit the biggest that the company will have ever made. Add to the fact that online travel brokering is already extremely lucrative and Google can eliminate much of the search marketing costs, and Expedia suddenly sounds like a fairly astute deal.
Would a Google-owned Expedia be unfair? Sure, but only in that they wouldn’t have the same marketing costs as their competitors. They don’t have the influence (yet) to make the airlines lower their ticket prices, which means Expedia’s competitors would still have equivalent if not better products. I also wouldn’t foresee many (if any) of those competitors pulling their ads in a Google-Expedia scenario – after all, where else are they going to find consumers searching for travel tickets?
译文:
不认为谷歌会买Expedia么?再考虑一下
有一则传闻萦绕在华尔街左右,那就是谷歌正打算买下Expedia.与此同时,这周访问网站的股票也上涨了近10%,虽然两家公司都表明了他们公式化的声明"对于传闻与揣测我们不做任何评论".主流的观点是这场交易是不可能的,因为谷歌让Expedia竞争对手在其搜索引擎上刊登广告,从而获得了很大的收入.这个观点是引自于The Motley Food.
"作为付费搜索引擎的领袖,谷歌依靠访问站点如Priceline(Nasdaq:PCLN),Travelocity,和Orbitz Worldwide(NYSE:OWW)来确定其与访问量有关的搜索结果的位置.事情可能会变得麻烦,如果谷歌买下Expedia.于敌人共眠是一个问题.替它付钱并且让一个对手在此过程中变得更强大是另一个问题."
然而,这场争论完全忽略了一个事实,那就是谷歌一贯地与那些付费的广告客户一起发布自己的产品.举个例子,试试以下任何一个搜索,你会看到谷歌自己产品的相应广告．
＂网络办公室＂－看到谷歌Apps的广告
＂相册＂－看到Picasa的广告
＂开始博客＂－看到针对博客人的广告
还有一个事实是：谷歌现在YouTube的视频缩略图也添加到了搜索结果中，有此你可以看出：谷歌可以同时为自己的产业和其他公司做广告，在这个方面谷歌根本不存在问题，而那些公司却要为每次的点击付出很多金钱。
至于Expedia，我们发现它只有谷歌资本总额的5%左右—是相当小的一个份额，虽然这已是这家公司处理过的最大一笔了。另一个事实是：在线访问经济已经是相当有利的了，谷歌可以减少很大一部分的搜索行销费用，并且Expedia突然听起来像是一笔很精明的买卖。
谷歌所有的Expedia会是不公平的么？当然，但是只是因为他们没有像竞争对手一样的行销费用。他们（还）没有使航班降低他们票价的影响力，这意味着Expedia的竞争对手还是公平的，如果没有更好的产品的话。我也不能预见许多竞争者会在谷歌-Expedia上做广告—毕竟，还有哪里他们可以发现顾客们搜索旅游门票？