Google’s famous company mantra “Do No Evil” is being called into question in a complaint filed at the Competition Commission by a South African digital marketing agency called Entelligence.
In short Entelligence alleges that Google has abused its market dominance in an attempt to drive a wedge between Entelligence and one of its major clients – The Yellow Pages SA. The aim, according to Entelligence, is so that Google can pick up the client as its own.
First Google manipulated campaign costings on its Adwords platform that negatively affected the campaigns performance by pushing up the cost per click through from 60c to R2 without informing Entelligence, the group alleges. Later it informed Entelligence that it was no longer willing to renew its accounts with Google (Entelligence claims it is spending $100 000 on Google every 90 days so this isn’t a small change outfit). This while Google SA pitched directly for the client in question.
“Entelligence and many other search engine marketing agencies have represented Google for years in South Africa,” says Sean Riley Managing Director of Entelligence. “Google South Africa is now cherry-picking customers with high expenditure at the expense of companies that have historically supported and grown Google’s client base within South Africa.”
Google cannot afford to undermine the two key pillars of its success affected by this story. It cannot afford to make enemies from its friends through corporate strong arm tactics (a very expensive lesson Microsoft learnt the hard way), and it cannot do away with the public goodwill it has built up, or people will start rooting for alternatives. If it has any sense it would resolve the complaint and put in place transparent procedures to ensure a repeat of these allegations don’t occur.
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This thing has 4 Comments
I agree that Google should do something here but the release sent out by this mom-and-pop so called digital agency is extremely emotional and unprofessional! If he has any hope of re-establishing relations with Google now…he can forget it! Who would want to partner with a company that makes all those claims in public forums…in that manner? We have engaged with the people at Google here in South AFrica and have never experienced anything as per report this Sean Riley has sent out. Google is working very closely with agencies in south africa (we are one of those) and not “stealing” any business from us. I have heard bad things about Sean Riley and this company – they portray themselves as this big organization, when they’re not…and we’ve heard of some fraudulent stuff they’ve done with clients in Cape Town. Let’s wait and see how this pans out…but I’ll be the first to stand up in Google’s defense based upon the working relationship we have with their office here in SA. Btw: How can Google SA “compete” with agencies? They don’t…whether they work an agency or directly with a client…there’s no element of competition. All this does not make sense!!
It is going to be interesting to see what kind of feedback comes back from other agencies Google is dealing with with. I have invited Google to respond and will post it as soon as it comes in. As for Entelligence, by airing their laundry in public, they are indeed inviting feedback on their own business practices.
This is purely a publicity stunt. Why would Google want to waste time with a small ad agency? I agree with Angus. Very unprofessional.
@Angus
If the company you work for is in fact a partner it seems to me like these guys are doing you company a huge favour. If it is all a load of bollocks then the competition commission will find in Google’s favour, why would you make up your mind about the truth before it has been investigated. You have posted a stupid comment on just about every blog that has posted this article which shows that you are going out of your way to voice your opinion to as many people as possible without really adding any value. hmmmm…