With over 300 million Internet users in the country and another 200 million Indians set to join by 2017*, the Internet is opening up huge opportunities for Indian businesses and entrepreneurs. India’s Small and Medium businesses (SMBs), especially technology startups are starting to bloom and investments have led to an explosion in India’s tech sector in recent years. At over 4,100 enterprises, India has the third-highest number of tech startups in the world, this number is expected to reach several thousand by 2020.
At Google, we believe that a connected India with access to the web will empower Indians, help businesses grow, open new opportunities for education for the next generation and create growth for the Indian economy. We’re focussed on getting the next billion people online and the majority of them will come from India. We want to make sure they have a great, reliable, and relevant experience when they get there.
As we continue to work towards this vision, we’re very excited to launch a dedicated destination (g.co/digitalindia), where we attempt to capture how this digital revolution is unfolding in India. With real stories of entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses, this destination showcases how they’re achieving their dreams, goals and aspirations, and how Google is enabling them in these achievements.
The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has launched the Digital India vision focussed on empowerment, development, growth and governance. With this destination, we want to showcase what that vision will translate into, by sharing the development and growth powered by SMBs, Indian Startups, entrepreneurs and publishers.
We are excited that businesses all around India are using the technology we provide as an engine for their growth and we’re committed to helping them succeed with our tools and products. Just a few weeks ago, we announced an investment of $20,000 of cloud credits for 1000 startups in 2016 - 120 crores in a single year for startups. This is the single largest investment we’ve made anywhere in the world for Google Cloud Services. We want to help fuel the growth of companies and startups in India and one of the best ways we can do that is by empowering more businesses with the powerful tools Google provides for businesses.
India has over 51 million small and medium businesses, however, very few have an internet presence. When we first engaged SMBs in India, our mission was simple: help them get online. Since then we’ve invested in educating SMBs - to learn more about the web and the tools available to help their business be discovered and succeed online. Today, we’re helping small and medium businesses grow - expanding their customer bases across the country and also, across the region and going global. One such inspiring story of how Google is helping businesses succeed can be found here.
We have launched an initiative to build Internet presence for 20 Million SMBs in India - which can be accessed by anyone, anywhere on their mobile phones. Two million SMBs have already found a home on the Internet, through Google My Business.
When 20 million SMBs have such stories to share, we will have truly achieved our vision. We are committed to this vision and will continue to contribute in accelerating India’s pace to become the powerhouse of world class innovation, entrepreneurship and development.
* IAMAI iCube report
Posted by Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director, Sales & Operations, Google SEA & India