Google’s Sundar Offer!

On 13th July 2020, Sundar Pichai’s announcement caught the world by storm to quote him,

“Today, I’m excited to announce the Google for India Digitization Fund. Through this effort, we will invest ₹75,000 crore, or approximately $10 billion, into India over the next 5-7 years. We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.”

He also outlined the major areas of focus for this digital transformation:

• First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other
• Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs
• Third, empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation
• Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture”

Let us deep dive.

1. Enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other

India is well known for its unity in diversity but it’s time to appreciate that people prefer to consume content in their vernacular language. A survey conducted in 2018 showed that India has an active internet base of 530 million out of which almost 50% are monetizable users. That leads us to a figure of 260 million, which is expected to grow to 400 million by the year 2023. The survey conducted in 120 odd cities revealed that 210 million of these people preferred to consume digital content in vernacular language, a market which sizes upto $300 billion!

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution recognises 22 languages but most of the online content is in English add to that 90% of the publication house (around 1.4 lacs) in India don’t have an online presence because they operate in small, fragmented micro markets.

This is not the first effort that Google is making to tap into this market. in 2018 they launched a platform called “Navlekha” which allowed publishing houses who didn’t have digital capabilities to edit and produce content in vernacular languages. But that was just the stepping stone. To be honest don’t we all feel that the subtitles could have been better or the translation while using facebook or whatsapp? Well Google is looking to do just that!

2. Building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs.

We have all know the story where McDonald’s had to introduce chicken burger in order to penetrate the Indian market. Many MNCs have come up with products tailored to the Indian market and Google is no stranger to that. Back in 2017, India was the first country where Google rolled out its “two-wheeler” mode in Google Maps. The company realised that India has abundance of two wheelers and they needed to navigate around the traffic and come up with additional routes that were smaller or non operational for four wheelers but open to two wheelers.

3. Empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation.

It was projected that, in 2020 the total transaction value via digital payment would be around $70 billion. Paytm has a user base of about 450 million with active user base of about 150 million. In August 2019, Google Pay had 55 million active users and was all set to tap into the 12 million small kirana shops. The pandemic has done something which advertisement couldn’t – force India to accept digital payments. It will be shocking to hear that, as per a HBR survey India has the highest cash cost and comes in top countries where people are averse to going digital (will be covering in another article). Google way can play a huge role in transforming India’s digital market place with its focus on enhanced security and targeting the fragmented segment.

4. Leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture.

Remember the days when Google set up free wifi access in Indian railway station? When the restructuring of the company took place, Alphabet changed the motto from “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing”. So this point is basically giving back to the society as part of the CSR policies. Yes skeptics argue that it’s actually a way to build up brand image and gain acceptability in the society which leads to further monetary benefits.

While is Google keen on investing in India?

At the end of the day it’s business and money matters. There is no free lunch in this world and same goes for Google. Google knows that India has a huge consumer base for digital content. A country not only with the second highest population in the world but also with a high percentage of youth. Advertising is a huge source of revenue for Google and the company wants to tap into that. They want people to surf the net, come across advertisements, make digital payments, all adding to their kitty!!