Google is shutting down Google Compare, a comparison shopping website for mortgages, credit cards and auto insurance after only one year in operation in the United States.
The shutdown marks Google's exit from the sale of such financial products, as the website did not take off in popularity among consumers.
The United Kingdom version of Google Compare, which has been in operation longer at three years, is also being shut down alongside its U.S. version. The closure of the websites will happen on March 23.
Google formed several partnerships in the insurance industry to be able to gain access to the broker networks that were utilized by Google Compare. The partnerships did not pay off with Google Compare, as the company will now instead be focusing on its main advertising product, AdWords, which has insurance as among its most lucrative search terms.
"Despite people turning to Google for financial services information, the Google Compare service itself hasn't driven the success we hoped for," said an email by the Google Compare team to the website's partners.
Google Compare allowed consumers to enter their personal information to take a look at different offers from mortgage lenders, credit card issuers and auto insurers. Google made revenue on the website through referral commissions paid to it by lenders and insurers. There were also some cases when Google was allowed to directly sell the financial products to the website's visitors.
Usually, consumers go on different websites to compare financial products, which lengthened the time it took to make a decision on which one to purchase. This was one of the problems Google Compare encountered, along with the fact that Google was not able to strike partnerships with some of the major lenders and insurers, leaving out offers from these big names on the website.
In addition, analysts have previously warned Google that because Google Compare applied for authorization to directly sell mortgages and policies, some lenders and insurers who were advertising clients of Google could be angered.
"Insurance is very complicated. It's not like selling a flight or shoes online," said insurance shopping website Zebra co-founder Joshua Dziabiak. Zebra is one of Google Compare's competitors.
