Google had formally launched its auto insurance comparison website called as Google Compare in the state of California in 2015. Customers were able to quickly compare auto insurance policies using Google's search engines with Google Compare before making a purchase. Google had tied with 14 firms including MetLife Auto & Home, Mercury Insurance, Kemper Specialty, and 21st Century. However the project was cancelled by Google within a year of its launch.
A day after Google said it would be ending its year-long Google Compare trial selling vehicle insurance online, the California insurance industry had a lot to say about what went wrong. Many people think that Google's failure was due to its ignorance of the insurance industry. According to some authorities on online insurance buying, Google realised that selling insurance and other financial items online would not generate the same level of revenue as its AdWords pay-per-click business.
In an email sent by Google to partners it mentioned "Despite people turning to Google for financial services information, the Google Compare service itself hasn’t driven the success we hoped for. We greatly appreciate your partnership and understand that this decision will be disappointing to some. But after a lot of careful consideration, we’ve decided that focusing more intently on AdWords and future innovations will enable us to provide fresh, comprehensive answers to Google users, and to provide our financial services partners with the best return on investment."
When Google had entered the market, there were a lot of concerns from existing firms on the use of customer data by Google to capture the market. When certain comparison sites protested that Google was unfairly competing by putting its own product at the top of the search results, the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK financial services industry regulator, looked into the Compare product in 2014. We are informed that any legal considerations had no impact on the choice to shut down Compare.
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