Internet search engine Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced its multi-pronged strategy to do more business by enabling more Indians to access broadband.
“Mobile has proven to be a great equalizer, giving access to computing to a billion more people and counting. But there are fundamental questions around how to ensure a truly inclusive, open Internet for everyone,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaking at today’s Google for India event in Delhi.
The main worry for Rajan Anandan, vice president of Google in India and Southeast Asia, is the fact that over 30 percent of mobile internet will still be from 2G connections in 2020. There will be more than 500 million users online in India by 2018.
Some of the strategies of Google are aimed at improving the reach and quality of broadband to more Indians. Some are focused on expanding Internet search to non-English speaking regions. The below mentioned strategies have already been shared by Google earlier.
First, Google aims to give better access to Internet to Indian broadband users through better connectivity and software. Better access to Indians means more business to Google.
Google has already tied up with Indian Railways and Railtel to launch RailWire Wifi, providing free Wi-Fi services in train stations.
Free Wi-Fi will be available in Mumbai Central in January 2016. 100 more stations will be rolling free Wi-Fi in phases.
Second, Google is making Google products work better for Indians.
The Internet search engine has already announced the faster loading times and increased traffic for publishers with the lighter version of search results and webpages. This means, your poor broadband will work for you and Google will make money from advertisement.
In addition, Google has created a new virtual keyboard that makes it easy to type in 11 Indian languages. You need not be an English man to read your websites. You can read your favourite news sites in your local languages as well.
Recently, Google launched a feature in Google Maps called Offline Maps that allows real-time navigation of roads and searches for locations without a data connection. With this, you can access Google Maps with expensive, slow or limited connectivity. India is one of the top five countries that has the most people using Offline Maps.
Google added panoramic imagery of 250 Indian monuments, including Hampi and Mahabalipuram, to both the Google Cultural Institute and Google Maps.
Last year YouTube, your video website, launched an offline feature in India to watch videos without an Internet connection. An additional feature will let videos buffer while they are paused for those on limited bandwidth.
Google will release a feature called Tap to Translate that allows the instant translation of any text on the Android phone in the first quarter of 2016.
Third, Google wants to make it easier for Indians to build on top of Google’s global platforms like Android and Chrome to build solutions to local problems.
A Google program will train two million new Android developers over the next three years by working with more than 30 universities across the country in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation.
The Chromebit, a small device that turns a monitor into a computer, will be available in India starting in January, to boost computing in the education sector.
This is the first announcement by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. He is also meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other decision makers in India.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
