Google has become more than a household name. It is one of the biggest companies in the world whose name has literally become a commonly used verb. How has Google gotten to where it is when it started as merely an Internet search engine? The answer is in the intrinsic value of using historical and proprietary demand data to glean insights on consumer behavior.

Why does every advertiser want to have a blip up on Google.com? Because of their unique storehouse of an inordinately large amount of demand data.

No one else has the share of computer user history that Google has. They have been recording it since their search engine began, and now no one else can claim the extensiveness of their mass of user data. Google’s search engine may not even be the best on the web, but it does not have to be the best. Their user data is untouchable. And the important part was that they got there first.

Their data is proprietary; they alone have control of it. Thus what Google has done by amassing their proprietary data has been to create an insurmountable barrier to entry in their market. In this chapter, we look at how, often times, being a first mover in a certain market can have the negative effect of simply alerting a larger, more powerful market participant to an opportunity, but not so with the demand data. Google’s first mover advantage has turned into a barrier to entry that they enjoy solely. Because they were first to move on capturing the behavior of millions of people, no one can duplicate what they have. With the advent of mobility, those companies who are first to begin capturing real-time demand data will find themselves in Google’s position, while those who wait a year or five years will find themselves outside of a large barrier to entry.