Google to invest Rs. 75000 Crore in India to boost Digital Economy
Updated: Oct 12, 2020
Author: Abin John
Recently Alphabet Inc and Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that they would invest Rs. 75000 Crore in India via the Google for India Digitization Fund over the next seven years. These investments will enable affordable access to and information to Indian citizens in their languages, they will be building products and services relevant to India’s needs, it will empower businesses to continue to embark in digital transformation and also they will be investing in leveraging technology and AI for social good areas like education, healthcare, and agriculture. Pichai also added, "Our goal is to ensure India not only benefits from the next wave of innovation but leads it. Working together we can ensure that our best days are still ahead.
What does this mean for Google?
These investments will surely help Google to build their position in the India market, Since India is a developing country with 1.3 billion people, India is perhaps the untapped market for digital push, and because of which in the upcoming years many more will join the internet revolution in the coming years. With this Google has a chance to increase its userbase across India. Also, recent investments by Google in Jio depict the data usage by Indian users and the potential of the Indian market.
Besides Google and Facebook Investment, Amazon has also invested $6 Billion in the emerging Indian market to digitize the small and medium businesses of the country. Apple has also invested $1 Billion for the factory expansion in India. This shows the capability of the Indian market among US tech giants in expanding their businesses. This move by Google is at the right time since companies like Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Reliance, etc has already a good share among the Indian market.
This will also help Google in Increasing its market share with its payment app – Google Pay which is already thriving among Indians. Currently, Google Pay has 67 million active monthly users in India. YouTube and Android will also see a jump in the coming years, currently, they have 265 million active monthly users in India.