News Report On TNCs – Google
Sophie Trinh, Lauren Yao & Cammi Truong
What Is Globalisation, and why are TNCs part of it?
Globalisation is when multiple companies, governments and countries come together to trade and invest. The sharing of cultures, technology, clothing, food, language and information makes the world seem like a smaller place. It affects the world with many as well as both advantages and disadvantages. TNCs are part of of globalisation as large companies, such as Google. The are various reasons for this, including:
- CIM (Cheap International Marketing); wealthy TNCs take advantage of cheap labour in some countries, e.g. China, some parts of Asia, and Africa. This is easily done by investing in a developing country
- Investing in a country has several goals, which are to use cheap labour (as is shown above), and becoming the dominant corporation by crushing lesser and local companies
- They help spread globalisation through advertising, which promotes ideas, concepts, and stocks globally
What Does Google Do?
Larry Page, the co-founder and CEO of the renowned Google, describes ‘the perfect search engine’ as something that ‘understands exactly what you mean and gives back exactly what you want’. Thus, Google is a huge search engine used worldwide and known by everyone who has access to internet. Founded on the 4th of September in 1998, Menlo Park, California, United States, Google is a TNC that has continued to expanded at a rapid rate in the past 18 years, and will continue to do so in the far future. In order to keep up with user’s wants and needs, it improves, updates, and makes more products that appeal to everyone. For instance:
- Web search – Search billions of web pages
Google Chrome – A browser built for speed, simplicity, and security
Toolbar – Add a search box to your browser
Bookmarks – Access your bookmarks and starred items
Youtube – Watch, upload, and share videos (was bought by Google in November 2006 for US$1.56 billion, and now operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries)
Google Maps – View maps and directions
Google Earth – Explore the world from your computer
Gmail – Fast, searchable email with less spam
Google Docs – Open, edit, and create documents
Google Slides – Open, edit, and create presentations
Google Store – Explore and shop the latest products made with Google
Where Is Google Located?
Positive Impacts of Google
- In 2004, Google handled 84.7% of all searches on the internet.
- In 2005, Google was valued at almost 52 billion dollars
- In August on 2005, Google raised its value by 7 billion dollars.
These statistics show that Google is an ever-expanding web search.
Google also provides email services (gmail), which makes it easier to communicate between people. It connects people, and brings people together. It makes the world seem like a smaller place. It also makes reading the news from other countries a lot easier.
Google is constantly expanding, with several services, such as google classroom, google docs, Youtube and more. It provides the world with the freedom of information, which may not be able to be accessed elsewhere. It opens up our knowledge about the others in the world, and their cultures.
Negative Impacts Of Google On A Global, National, And Local Level
Google’s business practises harm innovators, small businesses on the internet and consumers paying higher prices due to inflated advertising costs. Since people worldwide use the renowned as well as continuously expanding search engine, this is something that affects everyone globally.
On a scale of national level, Allen Rosenfald’s paper wrote an article titled, “Why Google’s Economic Impact Reports Lack Credibility and Mislead the Public, Policy Makers, and News Media: A Critical Economic Analysis”, stating that Google’s claims about it contribution to the U.S. economy are exaggerate, and its overestimate was at least 100 times the value of the actual contribution of its search engine.
In the past, remembering lots of information was a must; however, it seems that the human cortex is now undergoing a revolutionary change by remapping neural circuitry and the way we remember things because we didn’t have search engines or databases back then. Now, the focus is more on how to access the certain information on the Internet, rather than the information’s contents.
The question that goes most people think is this: “Why memorise textual information, when access to it is only a click away?”. This is the kind of question that result in so-called ‘intellectual laziness’ and the reason for society become less ‘memory-oriented’.
Our Group's Evaluation: Does Google Have More Positives Or Negatives?
As our world continues to grow, so does Globalisation, having both positive and negative effects in our world, both as impactful as the other on today’s thriving society. Personally, Google has many more pros than cons because of its large search engine. The majority of people in our modern community use google in a responsible manner.