Imagine for a moment: If you had a million dollars and a generous five-year timeframe, what would you set out to accomplish? It might sound audacious, even whimsical, but I’m here to tell you that I would embark on an ambitious journey to clone Google. Yes, you read that correctly—a Google clone.
The rationale behind this grand endeavor is not rooted in uninformed optimism but rather a belief that even giants can stumble and that opportunities exist beyond the horizon. I would build a search engine, email, cloud drive, docs, slides, office apps, photos, meeting app and even a video sharing site.
Everything.
Make my own version of them all.
Why? Well, you could blame it on “uninformed optimism”, but while we have all thought of Google as unbeatable, and that they’ve grown out of reach, I think there are some cracks on the wall already.
Point number one: GOOGLE is now basically “evil”, they are now the leviathan they set out to disrupt when they started. With every new policy, Google is losing goodwill and trust from certain partners and several quarters amongst the public.
Second point: GOOGLE is huge globally, which is true, but some recent thinking sessions and the subsequent number crunching I followed up with showed me that the market untapped by Google might even be bigger than what they’ve captured so far.
I think we might have been distracted by the size of Internet Giants like Google that we fail to see the bigger picture.
For example, Facebook boasts of having 1.908 Billion people, which is mind-blowing. Simply amazing. But, BUT the stats say there are 7.9 Billion people on God’s earth.
So, HYPOTHETICALLY, if you were ready to think outside the box, you could build your own social media platforms and reach 6 Billion people Facebook and their family of apps are yet to reach. Hypothetically.
If I wanted to be a bit more realistic, I could point at a company like ZOHO and show that while you might not get a billion users for your own version of email, productivity and meeting apps, you would be doing well even if all you have are a few million users.
…and while we might chalk up the success of TikTok to the notorious Chinese philosophy, I think TikTok making an impact in North America and recently, Africa shows us that really, anything is possible.
Yes, this might sound crazy, and that’s okay. History tells us that all great ideas were often seen as outlandish at the outset. But what’s crucial is the belief in those ideas and the tenacity to bring them to life.
If given the opportunity, I would embark on the journey to clone Google, not with the aim of imitation alone but as the initial step in a broader quest. I’ve learned from my past endeavors that replication is the foundation upon which innovation can flourish. The path to creating new “Internet Giants” begins with understanding what works and then building upon it.
This is our time to lay the groundwork for the digital giants of tomorrow, and it all starts with the audacious dream of cloning Google.
Together, let’s chart a course into the uncharted waters of innovation, where the extraordinary awaits.