Google warns of missed internet opportunities

Many established businesses are still failing to take advantage of the opportunities provided by internet business models and are risking losing market share to smaller, more web-savvy rivals, according to Google's European boss, Nikesh Arora.

Speaking to an audience of 2,500 business leaders at the Institute of Directors' annual conference in Central London earlier today, Arora argued that despite there now being a billion people connected to the web, representing 89 percent of global GDP, many established businesses still do not "get the web".

Arora insisted that many businesses mistakenly "think they have the internet opportunity understood and that they have a great internet strategy", but are still making basic errors in terms of investment and execution.

Arora cited poorly laid out web sites that tell you about the managing director and a company's brand values before pointing you to the products they are trying to sell as a prime example of how businesses were alienating customers and failing to maximise returns from their web presence. "This is the approach of many companies," he said. "They are turning customers away and it damages their brand value because customers think they don't get the internet."

According to Arora, established brands are particularly guilty of failing to take advantage of the web opportunity. "There was nothing to stop Barnes and Noble or WHSmith's becoming Amazon, they just didn't move fast enough," he observed, adding that this lack of agility is the reason that "a lot of the high-street brands aren't the brands people go to first on the internet".

However, Arora insisted that it is not too late for more traditional businesses to access customers through the web. He argued that just as when people moved to a new town, many web users are still shopping around and trying to identify the retailers they liked. As a result, he said, the internet is " still wide open" and companies that could build a great user experience and service still have an opportunity to build brand loyalty on the web.