The Success of Google Search, the Failure of Google Health and the Future of Google Plus

What makes an e-commerce company successful? In 2011 24% of venture capital in the US went into Internet companies adding up to a total of $6.9 billion (PwC & NVCA, 2011). With such high stakes the question of e-commerce success is more topical than ever. Google, one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world, despite huge successful products like Google Search, has also seen failures. In this paper, we explore factors associated with successful and unsuccessful adoption of Google products using a literature study in conjunction with qualitative analysis of the Google Search, Google Health, and Google Plus products. Our research identifies key success factors for user adoption of Google products and predicts that Google Plus in its present form will lead to failure. The study shows that perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, information quality, balancing risks with trust, and finally social pressure are important success factors for Google. Despite limiting the examination to Google products, results can serve as a guideline for other e-commerce ventures.