Google India to get 20 Million Indian SMEs online by 2017

Cementing its commitment to help SMEs go digital in India, Google India has announced the launch of a nationwide initiative to help small medium businesses to go digital and get online presence on Google search and Google maps, without having to invest in a website or domain.

As part of this new initiative, Google India will get 20 Million SMEs online by 2017 by using a simple mobile based app called, ‘Google My Business’, that will help businesses to create and manage their business information across Google products for free in both hindi and english.

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. There is a massive information gap for local businesses on the Internet today, out of the total 51 million SMEs in India, less than 5 to 6 percent have an online presence. With this new product, Google aims to bridge this gap through a massive feet on street initiative to help SMEs all across in India to get online.

Speaking about the initiative, Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director, Google South East Asia & India, said, “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.”

“SMEs have been central to Google’s success globally and have been strategic focus for us in 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 25000 new SMEs every week. Our moon shot - aim is to get 20 million SMEs online in the next three years.” he added.

In addition to this, Google also announced the final winners of Google SME Heroes Challenge along with CII. Google’s SME Heroes Challenge is an initiative that recognises and celebrates SMEs who have used Internet in innovative ways to grow their business. Simplilearn from Bangalore was chosen as the final national winner by an external Jury comprising of KunalBahl, Co-Founder & CEO of Snapdeal, Bikky Khosla, CEO, TradeIndia.com and Deep Kapuria, Chairman, CII Trade Fairs Council. Life cell, Voila, Pumpkart and Racold was picked as four regional winners for the SME Heroes challenge.

Congratulating the winners, Deep Kapuria, Chairman, CII Trade Fairs Council, said, “In the last five years, Internet has had a direct impact on how both consumers and businesses engage with each other. SMEs are the backbone of our economy, it is estimated, that the share of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) contribution to Indian GDP will significantly increase from the current 38 percent to 50 percent by 2024. India’s huge and diverse base of SMEs can benefit immensely from the Internet and we must work hard to ensure SMEs in India better understand the power of the internet to win in this digital age. I would like to congratulate the winners of Google’s SME heroes challenge and hope that more businesses will take inspiration from them.”