xfdfw BLOOMBERG-TV-14
<Show: BLOOMBERG TV>
<Date: March 15, 2010>
<Time: 12:12:00>
<Tran: 031514cb.550>
<Type: SHOW>
<Head: Steven Lee, Senior Product Manager, Google>
<Sect: News, Domestic>
<Byline: Cris Valerio, Mark Crumpton>
<Guest: Steven Lee>
<High: Steven Lee, Senior Product Manager Of Google, Talks To Cris
Valerio About Geolocation>
<Spec: geolocation, Google>
(This is not a legal transcript. Bloomberg LP cannot guarantee its accuracy.)STEVEN LEE, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER OF GOOGLE, TALKS TO CRIS VALERIO ABOUT GEOLOCATION
MARCH 15, 2010
SPEAKERS: STEVEN LEE, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER, GOOGLE CRIS VALERIO, BLOOMBERG NEWS MARK CRUMPTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS
12:13
MARK CRUMPTON, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Well, geolocation has emerged as the hottest topic at this year's South by Southwest festival. And while the startups battle it out, what are the big players doing? Our Cris Valerio is live in Austin, Texas now with the head of Google Maps' Steven Lee. Hey, Cris.
CRIS VALERIO, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Hey, Mark. That's right. You know, we just heard a few minutes ago from the CEO of Gowalla, one of the hottest companies in this space. Now we have a more established player here. Steven Lee, Google, specifically you're in charge of the maps.
So the first question that I kind of want to ask you about is what is Google's role in this kind of merging between geolocation and mobile? I mean you guys have obviously gotten much more into mobile in the last year or two. So where do you - what's the vision for this kind of merging with Google?
STEVEN LEE, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER, GOOGLE: Right. We've actually been investing in location-based services for about four years now. We started out by building at sort of the platform level and building location services into Android. And then we moved on to applications like Google Maps and Google Search and Google Latitude.
We just recently announced a new way to find products nearby, and so when you search for a product like the Wii Fit on Google Search you can actually find local stores nearby.
VALERIO: So one of the questions as this space continues to grow, and really a lot of it everybody's been telling us this is all about local advertising. That's really what's going to support this space and monetize this space in the future. As it grows, what do you see as Google's role because there's so many different little players out there and they're getting market share and they're growing. So what do you see as Google's role going forward? How much are you guys investing in this space?
LEE: It's definitely an important investment for Google. We already have advertising, you know, an advertising product for Google Maps both on desktop and mobile. We actually just introduced a trial for enhanced listings for local businesses, and it's really optimized for local businesses. It's a $25 monthly flat fee.
VALERIO: So let me ask you this way then. A year ago you guys launched kind of some of the stuff that you were talking about earlier. How much has this specific space grown in the past year? I mean what are you seeing?
LEE: We just introduced advertisements last year in the product so it's definitely new on Google Maps. We've definitely seen nice growth but it's definitely early on in terms of revenue producing for Google.
VALERIO: Do you think that this space is here to stay? I mean do you think this is kind of a gimmick kind of? Or do you think that this space will actually grow and all of these companies that are coming out will actually be able to develop and, you know, or do you think that it's a gimmick right now?
LEE: No, absolutely. I think it's going to be a very, very important space in the long run. And you're starting to see an inflection point now of new services and also new advertising opportunities. So I think Google's in it for the long haul and I really think it's a market that's going to support a lot of important companies and services.
VALERIO: When you look at the growth strategy for Google Maps and growing this specific area and all the different things that you guys want to provide, do you see it as a place that you guys eventually will acquire companies like Foursquare or all these small startups that are coming up? I mean is the idea - would it be good to grow that way or do you see it just all coming from in house?
LEE: Right. Google's definitely done a lot of innovation in-house, and will continue to do so. But we're always evaluating, you know, good opportunities to look at other companies -
VALERIO: So how close are you watching?
LEE: - that might be able to add value.
VALERIO: How closely are you watching these two, you know, like the battle - the battle between Foursquare and Gowalla, how closely are you guys watching that?
LEE: Right. Well, so personally I'm a user of Foursquare and a lot of other innovative services so I have a pretty good feel for what they're doing, and they're doing a lot of great things. It's, you know, the company definitely looks at what everyone in the industry is doing as well, but we really maintain our focus on the user and how can we improve our products for the users.
VALERIO: One of the things that you mentioned is that you guys are doing the new enhanced listings on the mobile space, and it's a different kind of revenue model. You said it's a flat fee. Why did you guys decide to go with a flat fee?
LEE: Right. So right now it's a trial in San Jose and Houston, right? So it's only on the desktop but we'll be bringing it to mobile in the future. What it does it allows a local business to pick one attribute that they're going to highlight, whether they want, you know, phone calls or foot traffic. They can choose that to highlight in Google Search as well.
VALERIO: But why are you guys doing the flat fee model?
LEE: Right.
VALERIO: I get what it is, but why this model?
LEE: We think that it's really particularly effective for local businesses. It's a very simple model that they can understand.
VALERIO: Okay, so if you could - if you look into this space, kind of the mobile map space, where do you see it in the next five years?
LEE: I think mobile venues - you're going to see more mapping indoors. If you go into a shopping mall or let's say a Walmart, being able to find things indoors and also being able to do product searches in shopping malls or in Walmarts. I think that's a really exciting area.
VALERIO: Steve Lee of Google Maps, talking to us a little bit about this space from the big guys. Back to you guys.
12:17
END OF TRANSCRIPT
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