Google Turns Focus to India's Small Businesses Amid Search for Users
January 04 2017 - 06:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Newley Purnell
NEW DELHI-- Alphabet Inc.'s Google is ramping up its efforts to
get India's small businesses online, the latest step in its quest
to win new users in the populous nation.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said on Wednesday that the
Mountain View, Calif., company will launch later this year a tool
that allows owners of small businesses that are now offline to
create mobile-friendly websites for free. Google says nearly three
quarters of the country's 51 million small businesses currently
lack a web presence.
India will be the first country to get access to the feature,
which will then be rolled out to other nations.
"India shapes how we develop products in so many ways, big and
small," the India-born Mr. Pichai told a conference of
entrepreneurs here. He said the company has added more staff
locally and executives have been spending more time in the South
Asian nation.
Google is also partnering with an Indian business organization
to provide entrepreneurs with training in skills like reaching
prospective customers via mobile devices, Mr. Pichai said.
Analysts say Google is eager to increase its user base in
fast-growing emerging markets like India so it can boost its
advertising revenue globally. Some one billion people here still
lack web access, according to consultancy McKinsey & Co.,
though more are coming online every day via low-cost
smartphones.
Google is effectively shut out of China, having ceased most
operations there in 2010 after disagreements with the government
about censorship, underscoring the importance of India as a
battleground for new users and advertisers.
Other U.S. tech firms that are increasingly focusing on India to
fuel global growth include Uber Technologies Inc., Amazon.com Inc.,
Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc.
Wednesday's announcement comes after Google in September
unveiled new offerings specifically for Indian users who closely
watch their smartphone data costs.
The "single biggest challenge has been connectivity" in India,
said Rajan Anandan, Google's vice president and managing director
for Southeast Asia and India, at the event Wednesday.
Mr. Pichai said a partnership Google launched in 2015 with the
Indian government to provide free Wi-Fi at railway stations has now
been implemented in 110 locations.
He noted that India was among the countries in which Google in
recent months has launched its new high-end smartphone, Google
Pixel, though he didn't comment on its sales so far.
While the vast majority of smartphones sold in the country run
on Google's Android mobile operating system, many new internet
users are flocking to digital advertising rival Facebook and its
popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, presenting a challenge to
Google.
"Google would like to be the first point of contact for users"
when they get online for the first time in India, hopefully
engaging with its services like search, YouTube and Gmail, said
Tarun Pathak, an analyst at research firm Counterpoint.
Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell @wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 04, 2017 06:06 ET (11:06 GMT)
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