What a fantastic year it has been to date already for XERO. And now, with the financial sector press literally buzzing with the truly awesome battle shaping up between XERO (ASX-XRO) and MYOB (an Australian accounting software rival), we have to ask – has XERO already won?
Some of the latest data that has come to light (ref: www.fool.com.au) certainly indicates a warning for anyone interested in buying into the upcoming MYOB IPO.
Remember back to the great battle between Facebook and Myspace? Here we had a very market dominant leader (MySpace) that most people genuinely believed had won the online social media revolution game, set and match, when in reality, Facebook derailed them like a steam roller by focussing relentlessly on user experience and innovation… there are some very strong parallels here between MYOB and XERO, with the thesis for investing in XERO is that this innovative upstart from a tiny country will be able to overthrow it’s established rivals. Something we’re seeing almost every day in the news.
One metric that was fascinating in that battle was the popularity of searches on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Once Facebook had overtaken MySpace in Google search term popularity it was already game-over for MySpace – in only a matter of months Facebook was also winning on user count and engagement.
Yesterday we shared news that Russell Fujioka (formerly of Dell) joined the XERO team as they announced a whopping $111 million capital investment. This comes shortly after XERO announced the addition of the fantastic innovative move to integrate cloud Payroll successfully into the XERO platform.
To test the above thesis when comparing the search term popularity for XERO against MYOB using Google Trends, alongside ‘Quicken‘, ‘QuickBooks‘ and ‘Reckon‘ pitched for battle in XERO’s home market of New Zealand. Here you can see the trends for yourself.
In terms of popularity, XERO clearly took over from MYOB back in July of 2011 on their home ground of New Zealand. Ever since they have been putting clear and growing distance between them in the popularity race. As a clear indicator of market popularity, from gaining the winning position in Google search, XEROs market share almost doubled over the following year in New Zealand. It’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Without a doubt, XERO is now the undisputed leader in the cloud accounting market in New Zealand.
Now take a look at the growing curve in the United Kingdom pitched against Sage, Quickbooks, Quicken and Myob (view the trend here). Although Sage take the market dominance overall since 2004, XERO is showing the biggest growth curve in popularity. Could this mean that XERO is already setting the stage for pole position in the UK for 2015 and beyond just like Facebook versus Myspace?
Of course, winning the Google search race was a massive turning point for XERO on home ground in New Zealand. Now, this trend is being duplicated all over the world. You can see the same popularity growth curve in Australia. Over the past few months alone in Australia and New Zealand, XERO’s popularity via Google Search is soaring ahead of New Zealand based MYOB.
Zooming out on this search we see see the true impact of XERO’s GLOBAL appeal! Since as early as 2013 XERO has seriously widened the gap between themselves and MYOB in terms of worldwide popularity.
This performance is a testament to the wall of innovation that Xero has been releasing, not to mention the company’s relentless focus on user experience and customer engagement. Xero still has a big mountain to climb in the United States, but Xero’s massive cash injection from one of the world’s biggest and most successful VC funds is a great indication that Xero is armed and ready for battle there too.
This is just further evidence to keep your eyes on XERO, and further establishes exactly why we have partnered with a global leader in cloud accounting innovation.