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Web search engine will take 90% of market, analysts say |
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Web search engine will take 90% of market, analysts say
Bloomberg News July 12, 2007
Google Inc., owner of the
world's most popular Internet search engine, will take 90 percent of
the market over the next decade through increased spending on research
and development, analysts at Cowen & Co. said in a note Wednesday.
Google's 2007 research-and-development budget of $1.5 billion is almost
double that of its closest rival, Yahoo Inc., the analysts said.
Google's capital investments, estimated at $26 billion over the next
five years, will finance development of the company's own servers and
data centers, the note said.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based
company has been steadily taking market share from Yahoo. Google
accounted for 67 percent of search engine queries in April, compared
with 19 percent for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, according to
ComScore Inc., a research firm.
"We believe Internet search is
a natural monopoly, which is similar to the Yellow Pages business,"
Cowen analyst Jim Friedland said in the note. "If there were three
directories in a region but one were easier to use and had more
listings and features, would anyone use the other two?"
Shares of Google rose $1.13, to $544.47. Yahoo stock fell 28 cents, to $26.69. Both trade on the Nasdaq stock market.
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