From Brand Recognition to Brand Adoption in a Single Keystroke
If brand recognition is any indication of eventual mainstream acceptance then Google’s addition of a bitcoin currency symbol to its native iOS keyboard is a sizeable arrow pointing in the right direction.
The symbol now features on the Google keyboard currency strip alongside the dollar, euro, yen, pound, Korean won, Russian ruble, Indian rupee, and the cent symbol.
It’s alluring to fall into the honey trap that this spells significant news. The tech conglomerate, which under the guise of parent company Alphabet co-founder and president Sergey Brin once admitted that it “failed to be on the bleeding edge [of blockchain]” is finally coming around. That Alphabet is going Bitcoin, and then – just maybe – crypto. (Especially in light of Google’s AI defining bitcoin as a “collapsed economic bubble” or making the cryptocurrency industry the butt of a launch joke.)
After all, in the period 2012-2017, Google placed second as the most active corporate investor in the blockchain space. And rumors regarding a cryptocurrency of Google’s own making have been circulating for a while, but that seems far-fetched, with Brin admitting as recently as last year that he doesn’t know “a whole lot about cryptocurrency” save for an amateur ethereum mining rig he’d set up with his son.
Offering a Window Into the World’s Collective Conscious
While the addition of a bitcoin currency symbol certainly shows Google isn’t turning a blind eye on the world of crypto, this latest news is unlikely to signal Alphabet’s foray into the land of cryptopia. Instead, for a company that makes billions out of listening to us ask questions, it’s only natural that they would give us what we want. According to Google Trends, the search query “What is bitcoin” was the year’s top in the U.S. and U.K. in 2018. A company that, in layman’s terms, “owns the internet” can only stay top by doing what it does best: playing host to the globe’s digital hive mind. And if that collective mind wants bitcoin, then bitcoin is what it’ll get.
Google has a significant effect on the cryptocurrency market. Unlike other movers and shakers holding the stock market in the palm of their hands, it’s primarily a content ledger, whether that content is organic or paid. Yet when the bitcoin price dropped by 11 percent after Google announced it would follow in Facebook’s footsteps and restrict the display of crypto ads in 2018 (a ban that’s since partially been lifted), it drove home the reality that Google has more of a say in crypto-land than many would like.
Time will tell what cascading effect the addition of the bitcoin symbol will have in the minds of everyday iOS users. And, of course, when Android users will get to greet the new family member.