SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Google and Amazon stuck to their strengths. Google’s search monopoly and universe of online services seemed to present little overlap with Amazon’s web commerce empire.But as the ambitions of each have expanded, it is becoming unavoidably, inescapably clear that the technology giants are heading for a collision.On Tuesday, at its annual Google Marketing Live conference, Google unveiled a list of new products meant to help it become a destination for shoppers and for marketers hoping to reach consumers considering spending decisions.Google’s latest move into Amazon’s core business is playing out as the retail giant makes gains in what has traditionally been the search company’s home turf: digital advertising.As online commerce has become synonymous with Amazon, shoppers are starting more of their product searches at the company’s website instead of Google’s — the traditional on-ramp to all things internet — and marketers are spending advertising money there.In 2015, about 54 percent of product searches started on Google, and 46 percent started on Amazon. By 2018, the numbers had flipped, according to the marketing analytics firm Jumpstart.Google may be synonymous with many things — search, ads, email, even artificial intelligence — but online shopping is not one of them. That is not to say the company does not try.The company’s shopping site, Google Express, looks similar to Amazon’s familiar online marketplace. Whether someone buys an item from, say, 99 Ranch Market and 1-800-Flowers, products are displayed in the same way and the payments are handled through Google Pay, the company’s digital payment system. Customers must meet certain spending minimums to get free delivery, which is limited to the United States.Google’s financial reports do not break out how much the company makes on e-commerce, nor will the company say how many people use Google Express, but analysts assume it is a sliver of Google’s $116 billion in annual ad sales.Amazon, on the other hand, sold $277 billion in goods online last year, which analysts estimate is between a third and a half of all e-commerce sales. Amazon’s “other” business segment, which it says is primarily ads, brought in $10.8 billion in the past 12 months, a tiny sum compared with the ad businesses of Google and Facebook, but growing.“Both of these companies are arriving at the same conclusion from different points,” said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of the Marketplace Pulse, a research company. “For Amazon, it makes sense because why wouldn’t they? They have all this traffic, and all this interest from brands.”Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on Google’s new shopping plans.The two companies, which competed only on the fringes of their businesses for years, now have a range of overlapping interests.Google Cloud is challenging Amazon Web Services in cloud computing. Amazon’s Twitch is becoming a popular alternative to Google’s YouTube for online video content. The Googl
Attention, Amazon Shoppers: Google Wants Some of Your Spending Money
SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Google and Amazon stuck to their strengths. Google’s search monopoly and universe of online services seemed to present little overlap with Amazon’s web commerce empire.But as the ambitions of each have expanded, it is becoming unavoidably, inescapably clear that the technology giants are heading for a collision.On Tuesday, at its annual Google Marketing Live conference, Google unveiled a list of new products meant to help it become a destination for shoppers and for marketers hoping to reach consumers considering spending decisions.Google’s latest move into Amazon’s core business is playing out as the retail giant makes gains in what has traditionally been the search company’s home turf: digital advertising.As online commerce has become synonymous with Amazon, shoppers are starting more of their product searches at the company’s website instead of Google’s — the traditional on-ramp to all things internet — and marketers are spending advertising money there.In 2015, about 54 percent of product searches started on Google, and 46 percent started on Amazon. By 2018, the numbers had flipped, according to the marketing analytics firm Jumpstart.Google may be synonymous with many things — search, ads, email, even artificial intelligence — but online shopping is not one of them. That is not to say the company does not try.The company’s shopping site, Google Express, looks similar to Amazon’s familiar online marketplace. Whether someone buys an item from, say, 99 Ranch Market and 1-800-Flowers, products are displayed in the same way and the payments are handled through Google Pay, the company’s digital payment system. Customers must meet certain spending minimums to get free delivery, which is limited to the United States.Google’s financial reports do not break out how much the company makes on e-commerce, nor will the company say how many people use Google Express, but analysts assume it is a sliver of Google’s $116 billion in annual ad sales.Amazon, on the other hand, sold $277 billion in goods online last year, which analysts estimate is between a third and a half of all e-commerce sales. Amazon’s “other” business segment, which it says is primarily ads, brought in $10.8 billion in the past 12 months, a tiny sum compared with the ad businesses of Google and Facebook, but growing.“Both of these companies are arriving at the same conclusion from different points,” said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of the Marketplace Pulse, a research company. “For Amazon, it makes sense because why wouldn’t they? They have all this traffic, and all this interest from brands.”Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on Google’s new shopping plans.The two companies, which competed only on the fringes of their businesses for years, now have a range of overlapping interests.Google Cloud is challenging Amazon Web Services in cloud computing. Amazon’s Twitch is becoming a popular alternative to Google’s YouTube for online video content. The Googl
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