Google’s Next Big Endeavor – Bringing Everyone Online in India!
Game for a weekend plan and searching for the best restaurants nearby – it is now in our blood to pick up our smartphones and search it on Google! Google has become an inherent part of our life. Seldom there’s a day when we don’t Google or a digital platform for something. But, Google hasn’t stopped here. Google’s next big plan for India isn’t limited to the urban households, but to reach each and every citizen of this country, regardless of his income, city, etc. Google wants every Indian citizen to come online. Here’s a short press release that talks about Google’s endeavors to connect every Indian with the Internet.
Next Billion Users (NBU)
India has become one of the largest databases of internet users in the recent years; however, Google doesn’t seem to be content with it. It has come up with a never-before big mission to bring every Indian online, and for which, Google has deployed a team of people, led by Google’s Josh Woodward, roaming around on the streets of Mumbai, observing local Mumbaikars, their lifestyle, their habits, their routines, etc. Termed as NBU (Next Billion Users), the plan aims at observing people in some Indian cities, interact with them, comprehend their way of living, their digital habits, usage, etc. to further formulate strategies that would connect the entire country through the internet.
Not Everyone in India is Online
Within our vicinities, we may be looking at almost every individual busy with his smartphone and using the internet, but that’s only half the picture. Your roadside vegetable vendor may still be looking at his phone as a mere means of making and receiving phone calls! Some of them may be aware of the internet, but for them, affordability could be a constraint keeping them away from the virtual world. That’s how micro Google intends to go and bring every Indian online. Digitalizing the entire country would also help such smaller vendors establish the online presence of their business, thus opening up an additional revenue earning avenues for them.
Neighbourly
Neighbourly is a ‘Mumbai First’ product, and an app recently launched in Mumbai by Google. Neighbourly is all about helping Mumbaikars with local searches and helping them seek instant solutions through prompt answers. So, a Mumbaikar using Neighbourly would quickly seek the best kebab joints around, and similarly, someone searching for on old books store would get an instant response helping him locate his search. That’s how helpful and locally useful Neighbourly is.
Google also Needs New Users
“Over time, you will see more global products that are developed in India first” – Sundar Pichai in an interview with ET in 2017. India is considered to be the best launching pads, owing to its huge population, and the socio-cultural diversity it nurtures. Currently, there are 1 billion phone users in the country, out of which, however, only 400 million use the internet. This is something that concerns Google, and therefore, Google intends to track the activities of these users and know where the gap is to increase its number of users. Moreover, since most of the older users are now directly visiting websites such as Amazon, etc. lately, Google has been losing a lot of such users, which is also why Google wants to add new users to its database, and for which, the untapped Indian market facilitates a larger canvas.
Google’s next big plan holds immense promise and potential to connect the entire country with the internet, and simultaneously increase its number of users, along with introducing a lot of earning opportunities for internet users in the near future. Digital marketing and the opportunities around it, in this light, are going to grow even quicker. With everyone coming online, conventional markets would be replaced by the digital ones, thus improving virtual connections, creating digital footprints, and most importantly, introduce new-age jobs in the Indian economy.