Google handles billions of searches every day and is part of Alphabet, one of the world's most valuable companies. It began as a research project by two PhD students who were not sure they wanted to start a company at all. In the final part of How Global Giants Began, we look at Google's origins, then pull together lessons from all ten giants.
Two Stanford students
Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995, when Brin showed Page around as a prospective student. They argued about almost everything, but became close collaborators.
Page was interested in the structure of the web, especially the links between pages. In 1996 the pair built a search engine called BackRub, which ran on Stanford's network and used so much bandwidth that it sometimes caused problems for the university.
The PageRank insight
Early search engines ranked pages mostly by how often keywords appeared, which was easy to manipulate. Page and Brin's idea, PageRank, treated links as votes. A page linked to by many important pages was likely to be important itself, much like academic papers cited by other respected papers.
The results were noticeably better than rivals. They renamed the project Google, a play on "googol", the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflecting the vast amount of information they wanted to organise.
Trying to sell, then deciding to build
Page and Brin initially tried to license or sell their technology to existing search companies, but did not find a deal they wanted. They decided to build the business themselves.
In August 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim saw a demonstration and wrote a cheque for $100,000 made out to "Google Inc.", a company that did not yet legally exist. Page and Brin had to incorporate before they could deposit it. Google was founded in September 1998 and set up in a rented garage in Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki, who later became a senior Google executive.
A clean page and a business model
Google's homepage was simple and fast, at a time when many portals were cluttered. It spread largely by word of mouth. In 1999 it raised $25 million from leading venture capital firms.
The challenge was making money. In 2000 Google launched AdWords, which showed small text ads related to what users were searching for. Advertisers could target people at the moment they were looking for something, and later the ads were ranked partly by relevance as well as price. Search advertising became one of the most profitable business models ever created.
Growth and the IPO
Google went public in August 2004 using an unusual auction-style process, at $85 per share. It expanded into email (Gmail), maps, video (by buying YouTube in 2006), the Android mobile platform, the Chrome browser and cloud services. In 2015 it reorganised under a new parent company, Alphabet, with Sundar Pichai becoming Google's CEO.
Business lessons from Google
- A better product can win a crowded market. Google entered search late but with better results.
- Research can become a business. Academic curiosity led to a breakthrough.
- Simplicity is a feature. A clean, fast homepage stood out.
- Find a model that fits user intent. Ads matched to searches served both users and advertisers.
What all ten giants teach us
Across this series, from Coca-Cola in 1886 to Google in 1998, several patterns appear again and again:
- Humble beginnings are normal. Pharmacies, garages, farms and car boots, not grand offices.
- The first idea is rarely the final business. Looms became cars; dried fish became chips; books became everything.
- Systems scale better than heroes. Bottlers, franchises, production systems and platforms multiplied growth.
- Crises shape culture. Toyota, LEGO, Apple and Amazon all nearly failed, and learned from it.
- Focus matters. Cutting distractions saved LEGO and Apple.
- Customers are the compass. Every giant grew by solving real problems for real people.
- Long-term thinking compounds. Patience, reinvestment and steady improvement built lasting companies.
Thank you for following How Global Giants Began. Every giant was once a small business; the next one may be starting today.
How Global Giants Began: the full series
- Part 1: Coca-Cola
- Part 2: Toyota
- Part 3: LEGO
- Part 4: Samsung
- Part 5: IKEA
- Part 6: McDonald's
- Part 7: Nike
- Part 8: Apple
- Part 9: Amazon
- Part 10: Google (you are here)
Dates, prices and figures are commonly cited historical values and may vary slightly between sources. Company names and trademarks belong to their respective owners; HorizonDesk is not affiliated with any company mentioned.
