Google Play Music: Market Position and Demand in Singapore (MKT6015)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Google Play Music's potential in the Singaporean consumer electronics industry. It begins with an overview of international marketing principles and their application, followed by a detailed market analysis of Singapore, including a PESTLE analysis highlighting political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The report then examines the industry landscape using Porter's Five Forces, assessing competitive rivalry, buyer and supplier power, and the threat of substitutes and new entrants. A SWOT analysis identifies Google Play Music's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Demographic considerations for the Singaporean market are explored, followed by recommended market entry strategies. The report also touches upon marketing strategy recommendations and the marketing mix of the Google Play Store. The analysis concludes that Singapore's tech-savvy population presents a significant opportunity for Google Play Music's success.

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Executive Summary
International marketing has been identified as an application of marketing principles in more
than one nation, by business enterprises overseas or across national borders. International
marketing has been significantly based on a conservatory of a company’s local marketing
approach, with particular attention rewarded to marketing classification, targeting in addition to
decisions at a global level. Furthermore, it has been stated that a direct investment company
places an unchanging advantage in an overseas nation state with the endeavour of manufacturing
a product, or part of a product, in a foreign country. An excellent global marketing strategy
incorporates all the countries from all regions of the world and tends to organize their marketing
efforts for that reason. The report has offered inclusive insights related to the market position and
demand of Google Play Music in the Singaporean consumer electronics industry. Moreover, the
paper has accentuated on market analysis, industry analysis, swot analysis, demographic analysis
and market entry strategies adopted by Google LLC in order to facilitate Google Play Music to
accomplish a competitive increase in the market.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Market Analysis...........................................................................................................................4
Industry Analysis.........................................................................................................................7
Swot Analysis of Google Play Music..........................................................................................9
Demographic Analysis...............................................................................................................10
Market Entry Strategies for Google Play Music........................................................................11
Marketing Strategy Recommendations......................................................................................12
Marketing Mix of Google Play Store........................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Music is similar to any other form of fine arts which satisfies the soul and further
touches the body. Music essentially enhances the ability to perform work efficiently and
smoothly without developing any form of boredom or monotony in the particular process.
Krause, North and Hewitt (2015) have highlighted the importance of music in bringing people in
several ways whether through similar music choices or based on the inclination in trying
something new or performing music with others. With the elevating rate of advanced
technologies, individuals have been showing higher level of likeness towards listening to
preferred genre of music via different music applications (Zeriti et al. 2014). As mobiles and
various electronic gadgets have become an intrinsic part of human lives, Google has recently
launched Google Play Music which is a podcast streaming service and online music locker
(Cavusgil et al. 2014).The service has been announced in 2011 and primarily operates in
platforms android, iOS and web browser.
Google LLC is recognized as a global technology company which designs and provides
diverse range of products and services. The company has been particularly focusing on web-
based search and efficiently displays advertising tools, desktop systems with extensive consumer
content, enterprise solutions along with hardware products (Play.google.com 2019). Google
proficiently offers targeted search results from billions of Web pages. Reports of Zeriti et al.
(2014) have revealed that the search results are primarily based on a proprietary algorithm, its
technology from ranking Web pages known as PageRank enabling the company to generate
incomes and revenues through promotion and ad sales. The following report will evaluate the
market position and demand of Google Play Music in the Singaporean consumer electronics
industry. Additionally, the paper will focus on Market Analysis, Industry analysis, SWOT

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analysis, Demographic Analysis and Market Entry strategies which should be taken by Google
LLC to enable Google Play Music attain a competitive advantage in the market.
Discussion
While there has been found several applications which stream music and stream it well,
Google Play Music is recognized as Google’s music service and comes on millions and millions
of devices. Cavusgil et al. (2014) have noted that while the application has got old-fashioned,
the application is still undeniably recognized as one of the most preferred and useful on the
Android scene and with generous advantages to paid as well as free users. Reports of Morschett,
Schramm-Klein and Zentes (2015) have revealed that Google Play Music enables its users to
steam up to 50,000 of their own selected songs for unlimited accessibility across majority of
platforms. In addition to this, the application enables free users to listen to curate stations along
with paid users to stream up to 40 million songs in their streaming library.
Market Analysis
The Singapore mobile application has been representing over 10% growth since 2017,
whereby the average monthly spent on apps grew around 10% to around 195 minutes in Q1 2018
in comparison to Q1 2017 (Demangeot, Broderick and Craig 2015). Reports have revealed that
amount of time spent on applications at the global level have augmented at over 35% to around
2.9 billion hours for the first quarter. Meanwhile, according to Samiee, Chabowski and Hult
(2015), 40 mobile applications out of 99 downloaded have been used every month on an average
basis. Such an amount of usage has led the daily usage to around 12 apps per day that has been
considered to be relatively higher than the global average of 11 applications.

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Market Analysis
Source: (Kozlenkova, Samaha and Palmatier 2014)
PESTLE Analysis of Singapore Market
I. Political factor- The Singaporean government has been currently involved in economy
performance. Further as per reports of Christodoulides, Cadogan and Veloutsou (2015),
the government has monopolized or semi-monopolized few industries such as real estate
which enables the power of government affect the profitability. While the financial
system has been able to increase level of opportunities related to trade and commerce, the
society has been undergoing greater level of complexities whereby the policies so
governing of PAP (People Action Party) has been essentially questioned (Demangeot,
Broderick and Craig 2015).
II. Economic factor- Singaporean financial system has been identified as one of the most

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proficient performers where the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has been continually
growing since Singapore attained independence. Reports of Cavusgil et al. (2014) have
revealed that the GDP in market price estimated in 2017 has been $ 212,349.8 million
along with the growth of around 17.5% following the growth of 17.9% in 2016.
Meanwhile, with the rise of advanced technology, the country has attained a position to
utilize Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) which typically gets used for efficiently
exchange trading information and has led Singapore to serve as an active trading partner
by endorsing the valuable transaction as well as information exchange which can be
performed on internet (Samiee, Chabowski and Hult 2015). According to Demangeot,
Broderick and Craig (2015), this has further been identified as a highly advanced
technology employed by the Singapore government in order to augment the value of
Singapore as a trading hub in Asia.
III. Social- Cavusgil et al. (2014) while evaluating the social factors of Singapore has
observed that major proportion of Singapore exhibit high level of inclination towards
multi-language skills signifying the pride of Singaporean. Singapore further debunks a
strong interest towards art and music thus will be highly contented in listening to wide
array of music from diverse genres.
IV. Technological- With majority of exports of Singapore being electronics and
technological products, it has been indicated that the country has been enjoying superior
level of reputation in inventing, implementing and developing new technologies.
According to Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes (2015), Singapore has been
considered as one of those high tech countries which has been persistently offering highly
skilful and proficient workforce along with high level of confidence which makes the

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other global enterprises to invest in Singapore.
Moreover, Cavusgil et al. (2014) have identified another vital factor of Singapore which is its
promotion of electronic commerce. Such a development however relies on the stage of pertaining
the laws and regulation in order to defend the contracts along with enforcement. This has been
specifically due to the importance of safeguarding every agency in Cyberspace (Zeriti et al.
2014).
V. Legal-The Singaporean Constitution has been regarded as a supreme documented law
which has been sincerely indicating the fundamental freedoms of individual along with
the structure and organization of Singapore Executive, Legislation and Judiciary. Studies
of Gay (2016) have revealed that a primary emphasize of the Singaporean Legal System
reflects a strong anti-corruption law.
VI. Environmental- Singaporean Government has been efficiently attempting to deliver as
well as maintain a clean and strong environment along with water resources for all its
citizens. Reports of Kozlenkova, Samaha and Palmatier (2014) have claimed that the
country has the most efficient solid waste management as an island-state. However, as
Singapore shows immense deficit of land so the rate of landfill the waste has been
eventually removed to only 14% of the non-incinerable and another over 55% has been
estimated to be cinerated.
Thus, through the evaluation of Singapore’s political, economic, social, technology, legal
and environmental factors it can be revealed that the highly inclined tech savvy citizens would
essentially create significant avenues for mobile applications like Google Play Music to
successfully make a market entry to Singapore (Samiee, Chabowski and Hult 2015).
Industry Analysis

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Porter’s Five Competitive Forces
 Competitive Rivalry or Competition- Google play music experiences a severe
competition such as Yahoo music, Spotify and Apple Music. According to authors,
Google due to its wide range of product range constitutes a diverse range of market
rivals. These factors however have led the company to exert a strong force on Google’s
market economy (Play.google.com 2019). Thus, customers using Google Play music
application face inexpensive switching expenses as it is easy for them to shift away from
it to other applications.
 Bargaining Power of Buyers- Authors has observed the bargaining power of buyers as
weak in influencing Google’s business. Reports of Zeriti et al. (2014) have exposed that
each purchaser typically makes insignificant amount of contribution to the revenues of
Google LLC, in this manner exercising an unconstructive force on the application.
However, due to the elevated and ever-increasing demand for products from Google Play
music along with other competing applications, individual buyers tend to exert negligible
influence on the mobile application (Samiee, Chabowski and Hult 2015).
 Bargaining Power of Suppliers- Authors have indicated that soaring accessibility of
supply in amalgamation with the wide range of suppliers primarily condenses the result
of the bargaining power of any single supplier on the business of Google Music Player
application (Gay 2016). Furthermore, as suppliers for Google LLC applications are
essentially varied the company has managed to comprise of a diverse range of products
related to Google Search, Google Glass, and Google Fiber.
 Threat of Substitutes or Substitution- According to Mollah, Quoreshi and Zafirov
(2016), Google LLC has been facing relatively moderate level of substitution. It has been

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noted that the low switching expenses has enabled customers to shift their preferences
from Google’s promotion services to the substitute services (Play.google.com 2019).
Moreover, in the view of Zeriti et al. (2014), the restrained to increased availability of
substitutes implies that buyers possess relative options if they observe a propensity to
shift from using Google play music to other mobile applications.
 Threat of New Entrants or New Entry- Reports of Demangeot, Broderick and Craig
(2015) have stated that the temperate price of business operations implies that a relative
number of Start-up businesses might have the propensity to make a market entry and
directly compete in opposition to Google.
Swot Analysis of Google Play Music
 Strengths- Google Play Music contains over 35 million of songs from varied genres.
Moreover, consumers can upload over 50,000 of songs and add to the library
(Play.google.com 2019). According to Gay (2016), great content has been identified as
something which all popular music streaming services have comprised of as wide range
of distinguished players contain rich song databases.
Furthermore, consumers can upload preferred music by playing Google Play Music on the
web, Android and iOS devices and obtain diverse music suggestions on the basis of customers’
music preferences. Cavusgil et al. (2014) have stated that with paid subscription, tech savvy and
music lovers can get the access to more than 35 million songs along with offering purchasers
with personal and family membership schemes. An individual subscription plan costs around
$10.99 per month, whereas the family membership plan costs over $15.99 (Christodoulides,
Cadogan and Veloutsou 2015).
 Weaknesses- Reports of Kozlenkova, Samaha and Palmatier (2014) have revealed that

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one of the main things which buyers dislike about Google Play Music is its absence of
lyrics. Even though there can be observed numerous trending features which Google Play
Music has been offering, consumers have critiqued the application for its lack of
installing lyrics in its database (Gay 2016). Additionally, Google Play does not have an
extensive available base whereby some of its paid applications have no availability in
certain regions and territories even if the country is listed on its distribution list
(Play.google.com 2019).
 Opportunities- Cavusgil et al. (2014) have stated that Google with growing level of wide
advertising reach has the chance of expanding its product array by using two types of
promotion techniques namely Google Display Networks and video promos. In addition to
this, increasing level of visibility aimed for display endorsements would give Google
Play Music the opportunity to offer higher level of visibility for demonstrate unique
advertising techniques.
 Threats- Spotify one of the leading mobile applications has been identified as a major
threat to Google Play Music’s market advantages. Thus, Google has been planning to
strategically compete with Spotify’s parent company YouTube Music that is an identified
as a significantly fascinating video-based music operating service that manufactures on
Alphabet's YouTube trademark (Play.google.com 2019).
Demographic Analysis
The demographic of Singapore’s population has been significantly shifting over the time.
The analysis of Singapore’s demographic profile authors have stated that the citizen population
has been ageing because of low fertility rates along with rising life expectancy
(Worldpopulationreview.com 2019). Tuschke, Sanders and Hernandez (2014)have stated that the

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rapid increase of ageing has insightful implications on the country’s economy and society. The
total populace of Singapore has been essentially comprised of Singapore citizens, Permanent
Residents (PRs) in addition to non-residents. In addition to this, the non-resident population has
been distinguished as a diverse group who have been dwelling for employment, educational
purposes or other family reasons. Till June, the total population size of Singapore has been
accounted to 5.74 million (Worldpopulationreview.com 2019).
Singapore’s Total Population Growth
Source: (Worldpopulationreview.com 2019)
Market Entry Strategies for Google Play Music
Singapore has successfully established itself as a crucial entrance to Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as other Asia Pacific markets for foreign companies.
According to authors, the country has been offering various international business enterprises
possible access to an English speaking business setting, expert labour force along with the single
business friendly legal and tax classification in the World (Sleuwaegen and Onkelinx 2014).
These factors however have enabled Singapore to be a supreme initiation hub for start-up firms
in expanding into the Asia Pacific region. Fu et al. (2015) through analysis have mentioned that