Business
Google aims to get 20 million Indian SMEs online by 2017
New Delhi, May 26
Google India will get 20
million small and medium enterprises (SME) online by 2017 by using a
simple mobile-based app called 'Google My Business', that will help
businesses to create and manage their information across Google products
for free in both Hindi and English, a company statement said here on
Tuesday.
With over 300 million plus internet users and over 6
million new internet users coming online every month, Indian users are
increasingly looking for information about businesses online, it noted.
"In
the next three years, India will have over 500 million internet users -
and these users will need access to all kind of information in their
local languages. Indian SMEs have struggled to build and maintain their
online presence.
"Search experience for local business in India
is broken today and we want to fix it by connecting businesses with
their customers," said Rajan Anandan, vice president & managing
director, Google South East Asia & India.
"'Google My
Business' is our first mobile based product initiative for SMEs and we
have seen immediate adoption of it in India, in the last 5 months during
our pilot phase, over a million SMEs have found a place on the
internet, and we are engaging 25,000 new SMEs every week. Our moon shot -
aim is to get 20 million SMEs online in the next three years," he
added.