Top Internet Brands in the News & Two Top Trends

It’s easy to get lost in the details of the daily news churn as it relates to today’s top internet brands like Google rated #1 brand globally and Facebook.

The top Internet brands*, according to a key ranking on unique visitors are:

Compete's Top 10 Sites Ranked By: Unique Visitors - April 2010

Domain & Unique Visitors

1 google.com 145,646,954

2 Facebook.com 135,375,036

3 yahoo.com 128,239,023

4 Youtube.com 90,780,604

5 msn.com 85,656,793

6 amazon.com 72,195,127

7 live.com 71,490,935

8 ebay.com 67,715,471

9 wikipedia.org 62,762,314

10 bing.com 50,122,089

Each of the top Internet brands faces similar privacy and open content issues as they are challenged to grow. Here are some updates:

1. There is a constant barrage of invasion of privacy issues.

* Facebook has repeatedly been the target of privacy controversies. When Facebook started sharing personal data and online behavior with outside websites, an advocacy group filed a complaint on May 5 with the Federal Trade Commission about the misuse of personal information. Some 31,000 users, less than 1% of total Facebook users, banded together to create the Quit Facebook Day website. Although the site attracted attention, it did not make a dent in decreasing Facebook users.

* Congress has asked Google and Facebook for cooperation into inquiries regarding privacy practices. Google had a snafu with WIFI data that was mistakenly collected in Luxembourg.

2. Foreign countries are challenging the open content concept.

• Youtube and Facebook have had numerous incidents. Facebook is banned already in Syria, China, Iran and Vietnam. Just recently, both Facebook and Youtube were banned from Pakistan due to inappropriate Muslim content. They have since been allowed to be reinstated by censoring out content inappropriate to Muslims. Bangladesh followed Pakistan’s lead and banned Facebook as well.

• Italy is threatening Google’s open content premise and business model. Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws because the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants to control Internet content. He believes that the Google leadership is responsible for third-party text, photos and videos and if the conviction is upheld, Google’s business model of advertising and searching based on open access to all will be at peril.

As these top Internet brands continue to grow and attain more market share, power and revenues, you can expect to read more news regarding yet undiscovered privacy issues. Just remember that you can have a voice through collective groups online, through social media campaigns and our government and politicians if you want to speak your mind.

You can also expect additional foreign countries, be it Western Europe or third-world countries, to be questioning and censoring the Internet to suit their politics, policies or religions. The overall nature of the Internet may look very different from country to country in the future. Each of the Internet brands may look very different overseas vs. the US version of the same brand. It is not unusual for the global expansion of any US brand to face serious issues unique to each country. It will be necessary for the management to be in close touch with their foreign consumer insights and constituents in order to succeed. What are your thoughts?

What’s next for these top Internet brands? I guarantee there will be a lot of change, aligning of powers (Yahoo’s online search deal with Microsoft), some further company consolidations and product/service brand expansions. For instance, although Google started out as a pure search engine business, they have expanded into more software-like enterprises with Chrome OS, Docs and Android. Google is even entering the media industry with its “Internet TV” deal with Sony this fall. What do you think is on the horizon?

* Note that I am including only pure-play internet brands (but not for long) and not brands that have brick-and-mortar, multi-channel or manufacturing components.

(For the curious, here are some additional rankings based on: Best Global Brands, Great B2B sites, Top E-retailers, Top website designs, and on and on depending on what criteria or industry you want to look at).

Brands and the Media: The Trust Factor

When we hear bad news about a major company, we follow avidly as former brand kingpins are toppled from their lofty thrones in the few minutes it takes to post a news release online. How do media reports affect our brand loyalty, and how do they impact the degree of trust we feel toward these brand leaders?

For example, BP PLC has been charged with responsibility for the worst oil spill disaster in history—thanks to the oil rig fire that has destroyed not only fishermen’s livelihoods, ruined coastal environments and caused upheaval to the world’s oil supply but also encased BP’s formerly stellar reputation as a global brand (ranked #83 in 2009) in slimy residue. Greenpeace recently posted make-over’s of the company’s logo on its website depicting the oil company with less than complimentary images and words.

We’ve also seen the previously pristine Toyota brand suffer immense damage as a result of their unwillingness to put customer safety above corporate profits and performance. Today they are still trying to repair their tarnished image after a series of embarrassments and ongoing reports about manufacturing negligence and lack of responsiveness to consumer complaints.

Even the highly-vaunted Lexus brand was hit hard after Consumer Reports, a trusted source of information about brands in various consumer goods categories, labeled the 2010 Lexus GX 460 dangerous and issued a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” recommendation in its April 13 Cars Blog. The impact of such a warning could lead to a drop in overall sales for Toyota, especially as the company is trying to recover from its recall fiasco.

Worse than the lost auto sales for Toyota is the loss of consumer confidence in its brand. Numerous Lexus owners posted comments on CR’s Cars Blog the day the “don’t buy” warning was announced, expressing feelings ranging from deep concern to total outrage. Some readers even stated their annoyance with Consumer Reports: “…I hope that CR isn't trying to stay relevant by feeding into today's 24-hour news cycle with its insatiable hunger for negative news.”

Public opinion is very sensitive to media reporting of real or perceived disasters and debacles. Not even President Obama is immune from brand erosion. Denny Hatch’s blog, Business Common Sense, says it succinctly: “Obama’s massive PR failure (following the BP oil rig fire)…is not about politics, it’s about process—an exercise in public relations and communication that directly applies to every organization—a one-person entrepreneurship, CEOs of a small business or a giant corporation all the way up to the President of the United States.” 

The issue in question is not the facts of what the White House did or didn’t do right after the fire, but the perception transmitted by multiple media channels that they did nothing. Says Hatch, “This is about critics putting negative spin on administration policies and the White House shrugging it all off.” Hatch’s conclusion is worth noting: “It’s not good when the face of your organization has egg on it.”

Not all news is bad news, however, and plenty of media attention was showered upon Apple when it introduced its newest offspring, the iPad, such as the glowing review published by Engadget. As Apple has so often and so masterfully branded itself, and Time magazine reported just prior to the iPad’s launch, “…it's not about the features—it's about the experience. You just have to try it to see what I mean."

In a time of brand flux and economic uncertainty, it all comes down to the user experience. If Toyota’s products are deemed unsafe, their sales plummet. If the oil giant BP fails to respond quickly and appropriately to a global disaster, their image is damaged and their credibility suffers. If the White House seems to turn a deaf ear to a major environmental disaster, they are perceived as uncaring and unresponsive. If a company like Apple continues to offer products that customers love, they will enjoy market domination, which makes it difficult for competitors to gain an advantage.

All of these situations ultimately focus on the relationship between a brand and its customers. It comes down to trust. Is your brand trustworthy? Can you identify other companies who have lost or gained trust in the marketplace as a result of being scrutinized by the media? Share with us the way your brand has been affected—positively or negatively—by media coverage.