Could Yahoo's search engine really be crushed by Google?
This seemed like an impossible scenario. After all, Yahoo possessed the world's most powerful portal website, and with such massive traffic, how could it possibly lose to Google's search engine?
It was important to remember that according to the last published data, Yahoo's search engine held a 90% share of the entire market. How could it have suddenly dropped to less than 20%?
Wait, the last published data seemed to be from before Google and Yahoo separated. So, was Yahoo's search engine market share at that time actually referring to Google's search engine market share?
With this thought, the reporters' expressions suddenly turned somewhat peculiar.
"Mr. Page, where did you get this data? Is it data that Google compiled yourselves?" A reporter stood up and asked. If this data was self-compiled by Google, then the hidden motives behind it would be extremely interesting.
"Distinguished reporters, please pay attention to one point: the data I am releasing now is from the prospectus!" Larry Page said with a familiar expression. "According to the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, if a company wishes to go public through an IPO, all data in the prospectus must be compiled under the authentication and supervision of a third-party company!"
"To ensure the authenticity of the data in this prospectus completely, we commissioned the renowned American accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the American Gallup Organization a month ago to investigate and compile Google's economic, tax, market, and all other comprehensive data."
"Every piece of data in the prospectus has been certified by these two companies. If the data here were false, these two companies would also bear legal responsibility!" Once Larry Page finished speaking, no one doubted the authenticity of the prospectus data.
After all, the investigation was carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Gallup, one being the top accounting firm in America, and the other the top survey company. Each had over decades of history, providing accounting and investigation services to thousands of companies across the United States.
The foundation of these companies' standing lay in their credibility and the authenticity of their data. If their data was ever found to be falsified, they would immediately face suspicion from all investors, and these two industry-leading companies would be instantly brought down from their pedestals.
These two companies would certainly not do anything shameful for the sake of a mere Google, so the data released in the prospectus was 99% true and valid.
If this was the case, then wasn't Yahoo's search engine actually hollow?
Yahoo's stock price...
The reporters keenly sensed a very interesting development. This might be a disaster for Yahoo, but who cared about such issues, as long as they could get a big scoop?
On the other side, as if to prove the authenticity of his data, Larry Page directly projected more detailed data, including a data curve that also included data from other search engine brands.
According to this data curve, before July 16th, which was before Yahoo Search was launched, Google's market share in the entire U.S. search engine market was as high as 93.2%.
Then, on July 16th, this share immediately dropped to 77.3%. The data for Yahoo's search engine appeared out of nowhere, and on its first day, its market share reached a staggering 18.7%.
This meant that when Yahoo Search was launched, it had directly snatched about 15% of the market share from Google Search.
This figure was quite realistic. With Yahoo's own massive traffic support, snatching 15% of the market share in one go was considered low.
And by all logical reasoning, in the following week, Yahoo's market share should have been in an upward trend, converting more and more Yahoo users into Yahoo search engine users. This would be a change that conformed to market laws.
However, this trend only lasted for one day. On the second day, Yahoo Search's market share increased to 21.2%.
But this was also the peak for Yahoo Search. In the following days, this market share continuously declined. By the 21st, the date of the data compilation, Yahoo Search's market share had actually fallen to only 9.7%, while Google's market share had returned to 88.6%.
Looking at such a stark downward curve, the reporters present fell into silence.
The reporters who came to interview Google generally possessed a certain level of professional knowledge. Through this data curve, most reporters understood the issue immediately.
This was a curve that a normal product absolutely could not produce. Since the curve had emerged, it indicated that Yahoo Search, which had only been launched for a week, was actually a very poor search engine.
So poor that many users who tried it once were unwilling to use Yahoo Search again and chose to return to using Google Search.
For Yahoo, this was undoubtedly the worst possible outcome.
Because as long as Yahoo Search's user experience was acceptable, with Yahoo's massive traffic advantage, these users would remain loyal to Yahoo. After all, it was quite troublesome to open a portal website and then open a dedicated search engine.
But now that the quality of the search engine was poor, there was no way to salvage the situation. Yahoo could only bear the subsequent consequences, which was the complete loss of the search engine market.
So, was Yahoo Search really that bad?
"Mr. Page? How would you evaluate Yahoo Search?" As the saying goes, if you don't know, ask. And the expert most deeply versed in search engines in all of America was undoubtedly Mr. Larry Page, who was present. Therefore, a reporter directly asked Larry Page the question.
"Oh, your question makes me feel awake!" Larry Page's face broke into a smile, and he thought to himself that after this press conference had gone on for so long, it was finally time for him to feel good.
So, Larry Page, with a beaming smile, asked the reporter, "Do you use the internet regularly?"
"Of course!" The reporter nodded. Journalism was one of the fastest industries to adopt the internet. With the internet, drafts could be sent back to the editorial department at the fastest speed, eliminating the need for slow fax machines. Nowadays, there wasn't a single reporter who didn't use the internet.
"Then, which search engine do you use most frequently?" Larry Page asked again.
"This..." The reporter was taken aback, seemingly unsure how to answer the question.
"In this case, Mr. Reporter, you can open your laptop, then open your browser, and check your search history. Whichever search engine has the highest proportion will give you the answer!" Larry Page suggested. The reporter nodded and quickly opened his laptop to check.
Seeing this, many other reporters also opened their laptops on the spot.
After a few minutes, the reporter who had been asked raised his head and said with a smile, "It seems I've been using Google Search exclusively for the past ten days!"
"What about the other reporters?" Larry Page looked at the other reporters who had also opened their computers. The result was that only two reporters had any record of using Yahoo Search, but this record only lasted for two days, accounting for less than 10% of the total usage.
The rest were all Google Search usage records.
"You questioned the accuracy of my data just now, and now you can see for yourselves whether my data is accurate or not!" Larry Page said with a full smile. "The fact is that among you reporters present, Yahoo Search's market share is less than 2%. The rest is all Google Search. You are all loyal users of the Google group. Now you won't doubt the data I've provided, will you!"
The reporters all smiled awkwardly, and the reporter who had asked the initial question continued, "Mr. Page, you actually didn't answer my question, which was how you would evaluate Yahoo Search."
"This question is not really suitable for me to answer!" Larry Page said indifferently. "Because I personally despise Yahoo immensely and am full of prejudice towards Yahoo Search, so my answer will definitely be prejudiced and cannot answer this question."
"But getting the answer to this question is very simple. Why don't you all ask yourselves why you are unwilling to use Yahoo Search and instead use Google Search!"
"For example, this reporter here, I remember you've always used Google Search. Why don't you use Yahoo yourself?" Larry Page asked curiously.
"I can't answer that either... Actually, I've always used Google Search, I'm just used to it!" The reporter scratched his head awkwardly.
"Me too!"
"Me too!" Those reporters who had exclusively used Google Search and had never even touched Yahoo Search replied. The answer was as simple as that, because they had been using Google Search for several years and had developed a habit.
"Then what about these two gentlemen? I remember you used Yahoo Search for two days, but then switched back to Google Search. Why is that?" Larry Page turned his curious gaze to the two reporters who had the only records of using Yahoo Search.
"It was too slow to respond!" one reporter said without hesitation. "When using Google, under normal circumstances, I could get the search page within 5 seconds. But when using Yahoo Search, this time was doubled, making it very uncomfortable to wait!"
"I had that reason too, but there was another reason: Yahoo Search had too many advertisements. I searched for our company's website, but the first page was full of ads. I had to scroll down two pages to find our company's website, which was too troublesome!"
The two reporters respectively stated their reasons.