Google’s DOJ troubles, Jaguar’s rebrand backlash, Revolut’s 50M milestone, and Eric Schmidt on AI’s future

Dear Marketer,

Welcome to this edition of Franc Talking, a weekly newsletter that highlights some of the top stories from the world of business, tech, and marketing over the past week.

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Table of Contents

• At a glance - What I read this week

• In focus - A huge week in Google land

  • Will Google have to sell off Chrome?

  • Google rolls out new update targeting website repu …

  • Former CEO Eric Schmidt speak to Stephen Bartlett …

At a glance - What I read this week

• Google faced another significant setback this week as the DOJ unveiled its proposed penalties following the August 2024 ruling, which found the search giant guilty of engaging in anticompetitive practices.

• Jaguar’s rebrand has faced widespread criticism after releasing a teaser campaign featuring bold pink designs, no cars in sight, and a noticeable departure from 90 years of brand heritage.

• Revolut, the global financial technology company, has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 50 million customers worldwide, including 10 million in the UK.

  • CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky has indicated plans to renew efforts to obtain a U.S. banking licence, signalling a strategic move to enhance the company's presence in the American market.

• Bitcoin has surged by 42% since the U.S. election, nearing $100,000. This has fuelled interest in how crypto exchanges are faring, particularly from an acquisition perspective:

  • Post-election engagement spikes on platforms like Coinbase and Crypto.com align with Trump’s pro-crypto rhetoric.

  • Binance, while underperforming in the U.S., continues to thrive globally, particularly in APAC and LATAM markets.

In focus - A huge week in Google land

Will Google have to sell off Chrome?

What happened: The DOJ proposed radical changes to Google’s operations, including selling off the Chrome browser and imposing restrictions on Android favouring its own search engine.

This follows the August 2024 ruling in which Judge Amit Mehta found that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Proposed remedies include ending a lucrative partnership with Apple, licensing search data, and greater transparency in ad pricing.

Google described the DOJ’s proposals as “staggering” and warned they could harm consumers and America’s global technological leadership.

Why this matters: Google has taken yet another blow in 2024, as the DOJ and ChatGPT pile on huge pressure to the once seemingly impenetrable titan. There is no doubt that Google will appeal should Judge Mehta agree with the proposals, but with an incoming President Trump - Google may lean on the President elect to take action.

Trump said at a rally in Chicago in October 2024 “If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it's more fair. Although Trump has stated “that Google is biased towards me” he has commented that “We don't want China to have these companies. Right now, China is afraid of Google.”.

Having seen the rise of Google over the past 30-odd years, they appeared indestructible and given their purchases of DoubleClick, Android and DeepMind have become one of the most profitable companies in history. Google will argue “it needed to build a moat for competitive advantage that enables better products for customers” whereas the counterargument is that Google made it near on impossible for a challenger to rise, thus providing Google with extreme power over the search market.

In October 2024, Statcounter suggests that 57% of the browser market in the US is dominated by Google Chrome. Google will have a chance to respond to these proposals in December 2024, whilst in April 2025, court hearings are scheduled to deliberate on the proposed remedies and Google's counterarguments.

Google rolls out new update targeting website reputation abuse

What happened: Hot off the heels of launching the November 2024 core update, Google began rolling out its latest website reputation abuse update. This update aims to address the manipulation of search rankings through the misuse of third-party pages hosted on reputable sites. Examples include

• Publishing content such as sponsored articles

• Advertisements

• Partner pages that are independent of the main site's purpose, with the intent to exploit the host site's ranking signals.

Why it matters: These updates can have a huge impact on the organic visibility of companies hitting their bottom line. Earlier in the year we saw this update hit coupon subdomains that are present on major news publishers, with The UK’s Daily Mail being one of the major publishers hit by this.

We now see the likes of “Forbes Advisor” losing organic visibility over night following the update, it appears many well known websites are being impacted by Google rolling out manual actions that significantly dent the organic performance.

The example below is for Forbes Advisor, with a focus on the credit card vertical. You can see this highlight in Pi-Datametrics.com below, with Forbes.com dropping from the second position in Google rankings for 'credit card with best rewards' to page nine:

It is tempting to leverage your website authority and setup off different businesses units based upon the opportunity in search, but as we’ve seen from what has happened to Forbes (they aren’t the only business impacted by this), you run the risk of losing everything overnight.

Former CEO Eric Schmidt speak to Stephen Bartlett about his time at the helm of Google

What happened: Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, sat down with Stephen Bartlett on Diary of a CEO to discuss a number of key issues. These include:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Survival: Schmidt emphasised the critical role AI plays in human survival, discussing both its potential benefits and inherent risks.

• Company Culture and Innovation: Drawing from his experience at Google, he highlighted the importance of fostering a strong company culture to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge.

• Impact of Social Media Algorithms: Schmidt addressed concerns about platforms like TikTok, exploring how their algorithms influence user behavior and information dissemination.

• Firms approach to hybrid working: He shared his perspective on the significance of in-person collaboration, particularly for young professionals aiming for career advancement. I was quite intrigued by this point and found the study that he referenced that actually suggests hybrid working being the most productive.

Why this matters: It was a insightful discussion with the man that led Google for ten years between August 2001 and April 2011. In his time, Schmidt oversaw the company's bid to go public with its IPO in 2004, acquired YouTube in 2006, and expanded into new areas outside of search—including mobile and maps.

I was at university when he took over and when he left, I was six years into working within digital so he was a huge part of the early growth story of Google and the Internet. Speaking about Google’s founder and the current Alphabet CEO, Schmidt was full of praise for the Stanford geniuses and praised Sundar Pichai's leadership.