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Couldn’t it be different, when this company is a the major player on the Internet market and on the advertising market, but it’s also a main character in all the major business trends, such as semantics, gaming, mobile, micro-payment and (recently) e-books?

But let’s see some news, all part of the global scenario:

• “Is Google a content company?” (07/03/08), which is only one of the several news on Google as semantics trendsetter;
• “Google to play games with AdSense” (10/11/08), which is one of the first news of this kind;
• “WPP and Google Launch Media Research Grant Program” (10/29/08), which is almost the official entrance of Google into the traditional advertizers list;
• “Introducing AdSense for mobile search” (02/13/09), which is the second, obvious extension of Google’s main feature in the emerging mobile market;
• “Google developing a micropayment platform and pitching newspapers: Open need not mean free” (09/11/09), which is more relevant than the former launch of CheckOut;
• and, recently, “Google Editions Embraces Universal E-book Format” (10/17/09), a direct consequence of Books and a direct move “against” Amazon.

In my previous post “I’d love work with Amazon” I already spoke about “Amazon rolls out mobile app payment service”.
This is a very hot topic, as the news record another company acting in the same direction: “Nokia and Tanla Sign an Agreement for License Management, Mobile Payments and Professional Services”.
Well, Google is acting also on this issue, with a diversified strategy which could on the one hand let it test the solution and on the other gather other players to develop it.

Keeping an eye on what Google does is actually a good way to see where there is the most of the potential future business.
Others are keeping the other eye on financial outcomes (Google’s III quarter seems we can think the crisis is over), but those are only a passive global economic litmus paper.

Ever since its creation Amozon has been a trendsetter in the todays business, not only having put in practice the “long tail” theory but also always being in front line with all the major innovation issues, such as virtualization, intellectual property and now micropayments.

First time I thought Amazon was one of my trendsetters was when one of its business characteristics (the “Long Tail“) assured as business theory thanks to Chris Anderson.
Then I came across “Data mining at Amazon.com“, which changed my way of thinking digital business.
Lately, I recorded:

• “TiVo, Amazon Offer Downloads to TV” (07/07), which showed the attention to online share rather than selling, with a good test with the most innovative actor in modern broadcasting;
• “Amazon to Buy Audiobook Seller for $300 Million” (02/08), which anticipated the one-tear-later revived audiobook business, showing an accurate market protection as well;
• “Microsoft helps Amazon soar in the cloud” (10/08), which confirms the company’s up-to-date technology ambient, anticipating the public adoption of cloud computing;
• “Amazon Snags Gaming Company Reflexive” (10/08), which is another good protection move, in the always exploding game market;
• “SnapTell acquired by Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com” (06/09), which means putting one’s head into the “visual search” and the “mobile application” market at the same time;
• and, finally (at least of what I recorded) “Amazon rolls out mobile app payment service”:

“Online retail giant Amazon.com announced the availability of its Amazon Mobile Payments Service, promising mobile application developers, merchants and distributors tools to process payments from mobile devices and extend Amazon’s 1-Click checkout experience to their customers. Amazon MPS enables Amazon customers to use the existing payment and shipping information in their Amazon.com accounts to make purchases via mobile device–after signing in from an Amazon MPS-enabled handset or app, consumers are automatically equipped to make future purchases. Amazon adds its APIs will enable developers and merchants to extend single or multi-use payment options–moreover, partners who already offer Amazon Payments on their website can add the new mobile payment option without any additional backend technology development.”

Simply taking into consideration what Amazon does is a way to keep oneself always update.
It has an uncommon way to protect its market, not only keeping focused but mainly investing in all the possible innovative niches it bears. That could be very useful for any national player in the book selling market, to follow the emerging trends and avoid the risk to be out thrown by one’s own market.

But it’s facts such as the management of Orwell’s copyright on Kindle showed one of the main reasons Amazon began to sell digital copies of books:

• obviously it’s a way to sell more books;
• obviously it’s a way to sell another “piece of electronics”;
• but it’s also a way to test on the market the “new” way of dealing with copyright issues, which will soon evolve and transform Amazon’s market into “to-be-defined” new business model.

The final move into the micropayment market is “only” a logic consequence.
Many other products sales are starting to become “rentals”. The copyright model is based on “number of uses” of the item. The only way to match the two characteristics is to prepare oneself to “sell the use” of content (which is also a trend in the news sector) and micropayments are the only media one could imagine to complete the circle.

In synthesis, that’s why I wish I could work with Amazon.
It sums up all the issues I love, it’s always anticipating them (in order to buy a company or enter a market one has to imagine it quite some time before), it’s really the best place for me to work now.
I guess I should send them a resume …

As comment to the current update of the “Communication Global Scenario“, I wish to point out how content is over and over the real evolution point of mobile, but there’s no evident and current news that show the real engagement of big players into this market.

Let’s see the latest and less considered news:

• Fox Mobile Distribution Strikes Deal to Integrate Mobile Content on AOL’s Winamp (04/13/09)
• Nokia’s Latest Buy: Mobile Geotargeted Ad Firm (09/13/09)
• MySpace Breaks Into Mobile Ad Market (12/06/08)

Those three news show:

• content players (like Fox) are starting to test their assets on mobile-like platforms, but still without much commitment (Fox and AOL are part of News Corp group);
• mobile hardware payers (like Nokia) are evolving into service companies, which is not a trend but the mere possible way for them to keep their market share;
• distribution payers (like MySpace) are going mobile only because they lost the online advertising train.

My conclusion is that we won’t see a “mobile take-off” unless:

• the public revert from web to mobile at a more speed pace than expected (but that’s not the case in the main trending market – the US – due to too high consumer prices);
• the telecommunication crisis ends before expected (but it has to solve energy and business model’s problems), which could support reversion from land to mobile connection.

As these two conditions are far to become real, even the big players on the market are continuing to test, without any real shake to the current scenario.