Human beings are curious creatures — we constantly seek information and are looking for answers to an almost infinite amount of questions. It is this characteristic that acts as the locomotive for our continued development. Previously, those who wished to gain knowledge or seek information had either to take a course or find the nearest encyclopedia. Now, however, one can simply ‘Google it.’
Typing a keyword into the Google search engine is one of the quickest ways to book a ticket, buy a blender or settle an argument, so it’s no surprise that the functionality and efficiency of a search engine has become a verb in its own right.
Behind this comprehensive search engine is a world of creativity and ingenuity that makes it all possible. Experts are constantly working to optimize the operation, simplify the process and tweak it so everyone can find what they are looking for faster and more easily.
Giving us a sneak peak on what goes on behind the scenes of the Google operation is regional director Wael Fakharany. Graduating in 1988, Fakharany holds a bachelor’s degree from Ain Shams University in communications engineering. He began his career in technology and later got involved in the internet, a path he embarked on through a chance meeting while jogging.
"The day I graduated I was out jogging and I met a friend who told me that IBM was looking to hire new people. I asked him what IBM does — as it was 1988 and I really didn’t know much about them, I went in, did the interview and I got accepted," he recalls.
Fakharany started with IBM on the technical side of the business, working mainly with mainframes. After a year he transferred to sales and business development when he had to fill in for his boss during a meeting with one of IBM’s clients.
He describes the shift as a mental challenge — going from the top of his class in engineering to a sales job was not how he had envisioned his career. But after discovering how his technical background gave him an advantage, he was able to adapt or, as he puts it, "I formatted my technical mind."
From IBM, Fakharany moved to several technology companies including Oracle, Sun Microsystems and 3Com before being hired by Google.
"When I joined Google in 2007, there was only one guy. […] He was a consultant to Google and not a full-time employee," says Fakharany. The consultant soon left the company, leaving the newly hired Fakharany to figure out his role on his own. "When I started here I was alone. It was a small office in Nile City Towers and it was very tough being the only one."
What is Google?
Fakharany explains that the business can be broken down into two segments: the application business and the advertising business. Applications include useful tools such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar, among others. This segment constitutes the smaller share of Google’s operations.
"The apps business such as enterprise apps, education apps and ISPs constitutes 3% of the business. [...] The advertising segment is the remaining 97%," Fakharany says.
The core of Google’s operations, and its income generator, is advertising. Products and services are advertised on Google but in subtle and unconventional ways that users aren’t always aware of. And that’s the product Google sells.
"Ninety percent of my friends do not know how Google makes money. This is because they click on ads without knowing they are ads [as they are] so relevant."
He explains that businesses offering a service or product through their websites can buy keywords from Google that relate to their company. In return, Google will direct traffic to their websites when people search for those keywords.
"[Our client] wakes up every morning and buys millions of keywords for people to be able to connect his brand with what they are looking for," Fakharany says.
If an online shopper is looking to buy an iPhone and types that into the Google search engine, Google will deliver a sponsored result via Google Ads that directs him or her to an iPhone retailer that has purchased the keyword iPhone from Google.
However, many retailers can buy the keyword iPhone from Google. To give users the best result first, Google gives each website a quality score that is determined by a complex equation and logarithm.
"This is the first time in the advertising world that we add the words’ ad quality. This is because a person could be paying me $10 (LE 59.60) for keywords and another pays me $1 (LE 5.96), but the one paying less shows up first, and this is based on quality," says Fakharany.
The equation used to determine the quality score factors in what happens after the click. The more popular and developed the site is, the better the after-click service that includes returning user statistics and data on how long they stay, which in turn improves Google’s quality score.
"I took you to the door of the store, if you stay three seconds and leave it’s not my problem. And the important thing is that the user keeps coming back, and this is what sets the best client."
Google in the house
According to Fakharany, when Google came to the region, its interests weren’t revenues. He says Google is committed to developing the region’s online digital ecosystems that act as soil for the industry’s growth.
"Think of us as Toyota, but what we do is not sell cars but instead we first fix the roads, [...] we basically build the digital infrastructure," he says.
The region’s digital infrastructure is far from developed, which means there is plenty of potential for growth. The population is another factor — there are 350 million residents in the area, many of whom are young. There is also relatively low internet penetration and little customized local content online. Coupled with a swath of talented software engineers, there are more than enough ingredients for expansion in this field.
But Fakharany says before Google thinks about cashing in, it must first fix the "plumbing" to do business.
"Let’s forget about money for a while and think of the users. What is the user looking for? What content is he reading? What products does he want? What kind of infrastructure is out there? Is YouTube working well in the country? Does it need to be faster? Do we need to add infrastructure?" he asks.
A good example of the lacking digital infrastructure is a deal Fakharany was working on when he first joined Google. The company had signed a contract with Hani Belal, the minister of higher education at the time, who asked Google to provide personal email accounts for university students that were unique to each institution.
Fakharany says that he and his team faced enormous challenges when they tried to get the project underway. "When we started implementing the deal and started dealing with the second level of employees after the minister, we discovered that the universities expected us to do everything for them," he says.
Fakharany says the universities gave the company a hard copy list of the students’ names in Arabic. The university expected Google to translate the names into English, digitize the information, create user IDs and passwords and then distribute them to each of the two million students. The institutions did not have the capacity, or in some cases the organization and will, to facilitate the process or provide the company with the information in a digital format, unlike some of the private institutions Google works with.
"AUC called us. In 15 minutes we had info for 7,000 students, 12,000 alumni, 2,000 faculty members. [...] We also did MIU and a couple of other universities," he says.
Unfortunately, the technical problems did not stop there. Fakharany says that even if Google had been able to create the two million email accounts, the university professors wanted to take ownership of the content and sell the students a print copy for profit.
So after working on the project for nine months, Fakharany and his team had to scrap the deal. "We are a ready platform but, metaphorically speaking, I can’t prepare the food for you and then spoon feed you. If you’re not hungry then it’s really difficult. So we found a way to say that when you [government] are ready, when the ecosystems are ready, when the students and professors actually deal with each other, then it could be possible."
Fakharany believes it was a missed opportunity since there are millions of students at national universities who are internet savvy and yet are unable to communicate with their schools or vice versa. This situation, not unique to Egypt, also makes communicating with other students in the region a challenge.
"It’s a shame; we all speak the same language, so why can’t we collaborate? Why can’t we use technology to collaborate? And it’s not just Google, there are tens of other technology platforms that can do this, but unfortunately there is no political will."
Google’s venture into the region is still in the investment stage. The company is looking to develop the digital ecosystem and internet infrastructure to create a market that is ready to absorb the internet’s significant potential.
A huge capacity
The room for development is endless, and not just in terms of social networking or education, but also on the cultural and economic levels. With the current ongoing unrest in the region, the internet’s role in people’s lives is growing exponentially.
"I am very optimistic about what happened; I am the most optimistic person in Egypt. The internet will play a very powerful economic, cultural and social role."
People are interacting with each other on a greater basis — be it through blogging or uploading videos to YouTube. The military is also communicating with people using tools such as SMS and Facebook, which is lending less importance to television and other more traditional means of communication.
"There are 25 million people online. If you think of a cool, nice product for them, a lot of people will use it, you will benefit and you will create a local economy," he adds.
There are endless ideas that can be turned into successful economic models. Entertainment, cash delivery, distribution, traffic problems — and that endless imagination is the beauty of online startups.
These same ideas, created locally, can be turned into exports utilizing the internet, if companies are prepared to embrace innovation. Take EgyptAir, for example.
"If you go to EgyptAir and talk to them about their Washington route [...] there are six million [people] in Washington everyday typing on Google search ‘trips to the middle east’ or ‘trips to Cairo.’ So you basically send them six million personalized messages, and since we can measure the cost of acquisition of a client, we tell EgyptAir, if you spend x we will get you y ticket sales. We are basically exporting EgyptAir’s service to the people in Washington. Now apply this to any business," explains Fakharany.
And it’s not just large corporations that can benefit — small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) actually constitute the larger share of the potential in the internet. Fakharany says he would prefer having 1 million SMEs pay $1 (LE 5.96) in online advertising than receiving $1 million (LE 5.96 million) from one large corporation because it creates a much more vibrant economy and contributes to building a stronger digital ecosystem.
"Once the ecosystems are developed, there will be a lot of small businesses online; it all starts with small businesses."
In the meantime, Google’s primary target is investing in everything from content producers and online cultural initiatives to SMEs, software developers and government projects to make sure Google does not miss a great opportunity.
And the opportunities are everywhere, Fakharany says.
"The great thing about the region is that all you have to do is see what is happening [abroad] and copy and paste it here. You’re basically reading tomorrow’s newspaper today." bt
