Amazon Beats Google As the Most Influential & Powerful Company In The World: Here’s Why

If you were to ask someone which company they thought was the most powerful in the world, they would probably say Google. They wouldn’t be wrong, had they answered this question back in 2018 or 2019. But the fact is, Google slipped from its top spot and was replaced by another tech giant — Amazon.

World Brand Lab Report: Google’s heyday seems to be over

Globally reputed research, evaluation and consulting firm World Brand Lab releases an annual list of the world’s most popular brands. In the 2020 edition of the World Brand Lab Report, it was revealed that Google had slid downwards from its number one position and into the second “most popular & powerful brand” position. The top spot was clinched by the global marketplace & search engine Amazon. The third place was taken by Microsoft, while Apple and Mercedes-Benz completed the top 5 list.

The World Brand Lab Report studied over 15000 of the best brands from 30 different countries. It ranked brands on three criteria:

• Market share
• Brand loyalty
• Worldwide leadership ranking

The battle for the most powerful brand was a tough one. But Amazon outperformed Google due to a number of reasons.

• For one, in the third quarter of 2020, Amazon has brought home a whopping $96.15 billion in revenue. In comparison, Google’s revenue for the same period stands at $46.02 billion. But this increase in revenue isn’t something new. Even by the end of 2019, Amazon had outperformed Google in terms of annual revenue, with $315.5 billion compared to Google’s $315.5 billion.
• For another, Amazon has been performing very well in its advertising market share. Of course, Google still rules the roost in the overall digital advertising market share. But in 2020, Amazon increased its global advertising expense to $11 billion. Forecasts indicate that Amazon will experience a 30% increase in its search ads market share, eating away into Google’s existing share and acquiring 12.9% market share. Already about 54% of all product searches happen on Amazon. This is expected to contract Google’s advertising market share from its current 73.1% to 70.5%.
• Finally, in terms of its customer patronage and brand loyalty, both Google and Amazon seem to be performing equally well. While 68% of Amazon users remain loyal to the brand, about 68.9% of Google’s customers continue to rely on the brand heavily.

Considering the above three factors, it’s safe to see that Amazon outperformed Google in two areas and emerged as the most powerful brand.

A medley of services to the rescue

Google and Amazon are both service-centric companies. Google’s main business model is information search (this also includes translation & voice services). Another business model focuses on personal and professional productivity. These services include tools like Google Mail, Docs, Sheets, Search, Photos, Calendar, Slides, AdWords, Analytics, Duo, Books, Play and more. The company operates on a freemium model, where services are free to use, but extra storage and higher features are paid. Google is also one of the pioneers of AI-enabled services like Connected Home and other technology like Pixel and Chromebook. Almost all of our daily activities are done in relation to one Google service or another.

But, despite this, Amazon’s services reach much farther than Googles.

When Amazon started out its service as a market place where absolutely anything could be listed and sold. When we say “anything”, we mean it. For example, were you aware that you can “order” Buddhist priests on Amazon’s Japan site? You can also buy strange things like a box full of live insects, human bones and even a pre-fabricated house that’s shipped wherever you want it. But the marketplace is just the tip of the Amazonian iceberg.

Today, Amazon’s services span multiple niches. There’s Amazon Web Services, which includes a variety of tools such as the Amazon Simple Email Service. This email service can be used by brands for transactional communication. You have Amazon Drive, which offers you 5GB of cloud storage. For higher storage up to 5TB, customers can access Amazon Simple Storage Service. There are other services like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Glacier, AWS Identity and Access Management and Amazon SimpleDB, which are designed to support companies in their day-to-day operations.

In terms of digital content, Amazon Prime & Amazon Music are cost-effective on-demand entertainment services. Much of this content is developed in their own Amazon Studios. The company also has its own publishing SBU, called Kindle Direct Publishing. For gaming afficionados, Amazon Games Studios and Amazon Luna are great places to purchase gaming titles.

Apart from these, Amazon has also started direct home delivery service of its goods. You can even hire service/repair professionals through Amazon Home Services. To furnish your home, the company has an expansive library of consumer goods. To stock your fridge, there is AmazonFresh.

In many countries, Amazon has started offering digital utilities and phone bill payment services. Customers can also pay their insurance premiums, State/Federal tax, book travel tickets and do so much more, right from the Amazon website or app.

Given the range of services Amazon offers, it has become the go-to place for millions of customer to buy necessities, complete important tasks and run their business. This makes Amazon inherently more influential on customers because they’re involved in so many aspects of our lives.

Smart coronavirus pandemic management influenced Amazon’s reach and power

Another reason for Amazon’s success over Google is the wonderful way in which the company handled the coronavirus pandemic. Almost overnight, Amazon ramped up its hiring, despite the financially constricting times. In the US, over 427300 employees were hired in the second & third quarter of the year to meet the growing demand for contactless delivery of groceries. In India, the company employed 876,800 new employees between March & June 2020, with more job drives in subsequent months. The case was the same across the world.

But why did job seekers want to work at Amazon?

Amazon has a legacy of being a good employer. In their Operations & Warehousing division, the hourly wage stands between $12 & $15, above the minimum hourly wage. In addition to this, the company offers health insurance, 401(k) matching, tuition reimbursement and restricted stock options — which most other companies do not.

In comparison, while Google continued to hire in the first quarter, it slowly lost hiring momentum in the second and third quarter of 2020. One of the main reasons for this is the slowdown that Google experienced in its advertising revenues. With fewer companies choosing to advertise during the financially challenging period, Google simply did not have money to spare to hire more people.

Amazon, on the other hand, experienced a surge in business demand, as people were desperate to avoid physical contact at retail stores. Irrespective of these facts, Amazon proved to be of great help at a time when many people lost their jobs to the pandemic. This has had a positive psychological impact on people, increasing customer brand loyalty tremendously.

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