“Google Play” Cuts Prices Up To 75% For Holiday Weekend

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) does not want to be outdone by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) or the dozens of national retailers which have offered massive discounts on items to bring in foot and online traffic during Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Google Play, the search company’s online store, has cut prices on some of the items it sells by three quarters.

According to the “Google Play Team”, shoppers can

Take advantage of our limited-time deals on books, games, movies, music, magazines and more as we kick off the holiday season! Don’t delay in picking up on these amazing offers—whether it’s top music from $1.99, bestselling books from 75% off, TV seasons on sale and amazing movie deals, or steep gaming discounts!

Google has repeatedly demonstrated that it is willing to aggressively price its products, or give them away for free, to advance its presence in critical internet battle grounds which include advertising, operating systems, e-commerce,  and mapping. The Google Play initiative does not appear much different from its broader strategy. Amazon’s leadership in the e-reader and e-book sector is substantial. And, Amazon, Apple NASDAQ: AAPL), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) hold the high ground in streaming media. In other words, Google has its work cut out for it, if it wants to advance in any of these businesses.

Some of the offers in the Google Play holiday sale are indeed very aggressive. The “Play” store charges only $7.49 for the wildly successful “Fifty Shades Trilogy”.  Shoppers can rent “Hangover III”, part of the successful movie trilogy, for only $3.99. The popular Electronic Arts “Need For Speed: Most Wanted” app is on sale for only $1.99.

Google will likely not post the results of its aggressive holiday promotions for the public to see. And, Google’s investors may not care about them, because “Google Play” sales are such a tiny part of the company’s overall revenue. However, the holiday sale represents how much Google wants to get into the sectors of multimedia, e-books, and online games. Google does not dominate any of these, but management must believe the search company cannot fall far behind in them, since these products are what tethers many of its competitors’ customers to their services.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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