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Google Really, Really Wants To Bring India's Small Businesses Online (buzzfeed.com)

Posted by msmash on from the going-big dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Millions more Indians are now coming online, but India's small businesses -- including everything from decades-old mom and pop stores to neighborhood bakeries -- are lagging behind. Google wants to change that. At an event in New Delhi today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a brand new program called Digital Unlocked aimed at helping India's 51 million small and medium businesses establish an online presence. Over the next three years, Google will hold 5,000 daylong classes in 40 Indian cities to teach business owners everything from the basics -- getting their business listed on Google Maps, for instance -- to advanced courses like running an online advertising campaign and measuring analytics.

36 comments

  1. Lots of curry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

    1. Re:Lots of curry by TWX · · Score: 1

      I see you shiver with antici...

      ...

      ...

      ...pation!

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  2. Easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bitcoin

  3. Stop clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Asia and Africa don't want to hand their information over to Google. Google falls all over itself to get them to do so.

  4. Fixed Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google Really, Really Wants To Profit From India's Small Businesses Online

    FTFY - Do not confuse philanthropy with business strategy, they are not the same.

    1. Re:Fixed Headline by TWX · · Score: 2

      And don't forget that a lot, a lot of small businesses make more money than their respective tax agencies are told about. Under-the-table methods of buying and selling contribute a large part to the bottom lines of many small business owners, and those business owners are often not about to change that which would upset that applecart.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Fixed Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is also a way to get India's spy agencies more data.

    3. Re: Fixed Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. One thing to admire about India is their tradition of small businesses over huge ones. That sort of thing makes people happier all around and is better suited for creating an economy that serves people. I really hope this idiot of a PM of theirs is unsuccessful in changing that. They've got other problems to be sure, but a lack of Google in their lives sure isn't one of them.

      When you run a business that serves your community, where your customers literally pass by you every day, if you need any online presence at all it's minimal--like when a friend asks me to meet at an unfamiliar restaurant I'll look at their menu online once and then never visit their site again because why bother? There are exceptions of course but it's a much more human way of doing business. It's also the answer to all the automation and robotics twerps who want to put everyone out of work.

    4. Re:Fixed Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There can be many motivations for wanting to BRING Indian small biz online. Philanthropy wasn't stated anywhere except by you, and I'd bet everyone who read the original title correctly associated Googles desire to bring isb online with their desire to profit from it.

    5. Re: Fixed Headline by TWX · · Score: 1

      In many ways I use the online presence of small businesses in the same way I used the yellow pages telephone directory, with the addendum that they usually have hours of operation, alternate hours for holidays, and a map to the location present. I generally still have to call to inquire if the business is a specialty supplier, and I have to go in person to do business even if it isn't. As you point out with restaurants it can be nice to have a menu, but I don't need "the experience" that so many restaurants attempt to foster on their website, I just need to know what they serve and when they're open.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  5. LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course they do. Google needs more people to spy on for the NSA, GCHQ and the other government facist organizations.

  6. Google - GeoCities? by randomErr · · Score: 2

    Later this year, Google will also launch a tool called My Business Websites, which will allow any small business to easily create and manage its own mobile-friendly website using nothing more than a smartphone in up to nine Indian languages.

    It sounds like Google is just putting out an enhanced version of their Google Sites based on location. You pick a template and fill in a form with your information. Google then consumes it and automatically indexes your site.

    Also instead of putting on these classes couldn't they just do YouTube videos and their version of the Dummies Guide to Google?

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  7. No, they want to strip-mine the privacy of 1B more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google is just looking to strip-mine the privacy of another billion or so people, then SELL the details they glean to anyone or anything willing to pay for them.

    Evil.

  8. india online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    india online: poonline

  9. Small business ideas for India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Small business ideas for India

    1. Fish the rotting dead bodies out of the river where people brush their teeth.
    2. Sweep the fresh human shits out of the street where man and beast alike unashamedly defecate at all hours of the day and night.
    3. Make flashlight holders for doctors performing coerced sterilizations on unsuspecting village girls.
    4. Run training academies for H1B visa applicants where students learn how to nod their heads side to side, make up English-sounding phrases like "revert to me" and "do the needful", be totally incomprehensible on phone calls and sleep 8 to a studio apartment.
    5. Noseplugs so people don't have to smell all of the above, plus curry, 24/7.

    1. Re:Small business ideas for India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      awww you're afraid they'll cut into your sweatshops and call center profits, how cute. food racist.

    2. Re:Small business ideas for India by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      I hope nobody mods up the usual unfunny racist bullshit about curry.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    3. Re: Small business ideas for India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I lived in an apartment building with a bunch of Indians once. It fucking sucked. It stunk so bad all the god damn time. Between smelling like curry, spices and human body odor, it was unbearable. I moved after my lease was up, when asked why, I told them the truth. Because living around a bunch of Indians(6 of them in a 2 bedroom apartment, all adults) sucked.

  10. Be honest, they don't give a shit about India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they just want to tap into their market, and suck all the data out of those 51 million businesses, and establish themselves as the majority solution to all things Internet in India before any other competitor does, because it means not just revenue, but control.

    Understand this: Google has become a political mission.

  11. Should not be surprising by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Pichai has been killing off all of the advanced stuff at Google that made them into giants and is now moving various groups to India, in hopes of helping his nation. Basically, he is doing to Google, what most Indian CEOs/CIOs do which is move all work back to their nation regardless of the long term consequences to the company.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:Should not be surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He can shove that curry up his ass!!

    2. Re:Should not be surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When monetizing trumped research, the game was already over.

      Search results still kinda sorta work but you quickly see who's paid what to be where when you use other services. GMail is GMail, they stopped fucking around with the UI long enough to keep things quiet. YouTube went through several ridiculous changes, now it's getting harder for creators to actually create things there without getting punished by changing algorithms or the Copyright AI monster slapping them with some nonsense. We don't talk about the G+ ... nobody talks about the G+

      The old Google ain't what she used to be...

      But hey! Android sales continue to dominate! *muffled screaming into a pillow*

    3. Re:Should not be surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To Indians nationalism is not a dirty word. And they will leverage this difference as far as it will take them.

  12. Re:Google Maps? by tepples · · Score: 1

    For-profit businesses want to reach customers. If a business's prospective customers predominantly use one mapping platform and a vocal minority of freedom fanatics use another, the business is likely to concentrate on the mapping platform that brings in the most customers. In order to make OpenStreetMap viable, freedom fanatics may have to find businesses themselves and ask staff why the business's listing is inaccurate or missing.

  13. And if you really wanna be a madarchod by tepples · · Score: 1

    4a. Run technical "support" hotlines where technicians pretend the tree command is a "wirus" scan, misinterpret Windows event logs as evidence of malware on the user's "dextop", misinterpret services that don't need to run right now as services disabled by malware, charge $500 for a 3-year PC maintenance plan, and threaten to lock the victim out of his own computer with SAM Lock Tool (syskey.exe) if he doesn't buy.

    Source: YouTube channels Each & Everything, Thunder Tech, and Lewis's Tech

    1. Re: And if you really wanna be a madarchod by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had this happen to a friend of mine. He called norton antivirus for some help, they told him they couldn't help him. 5 minutes later he received a call from a "tech company" saying for only $350 they will protect his PC for 3 years. Oh I forgot to say, it was on sale, so he was getting a deal. Luckily he called me. While we were on the phone, they called him 10 times back to back to back. I told him ignore the calls it's a scam. I remoted into his computer, scanned it, found nothing. "But the tech guy said I had over 19,000 viruses" I just chuckled and told him it's a lie.

  14. Democracy is better, no really... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google will help India show how it can be an efficient democracy, better than communist China, with the power of the Internet. It doesn't matter that they haven't been able to have a stable currency and prevent customary corruption, or attempt to improve their legendary social inequality that has been ingrained in their culture. Google will fix it by holding small classes to teach them how to depend fully on Google services. Learning by rote will help them become good democratic robots that support Google (not Baidu) and will suddenly make their economy stable.

  15. Dried Cow Dung by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is their that big of a demand for dried cow dung?

  16. Re:Google Maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IOW, Google is *only* concerned about its profits and doesn't give a rat's ass about you and me.

    Thankyou, that's what I wanted to know.

  17. Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google really really wants to make more money

  18. Tax evasion hampers such innovation by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Tax evasion is rampant in India. Underinvoicing, false invoicing, maintaining inventory and sales off-the-record etc are very common. Even well established publicly traded companies do it. My uncle was the dealer/distributor for United Breweries for a district. The brewery would invoice "seconds" "damaged" goods at low price, affix easily removable stickers on the crates and ship them to him. The understanding is, he would remove the stickers, sell the liquor at full price, grease the palms of police, excise tax collectors etc and send back the rest in cash in suitcases. (The owner is a tax fugitive now hiding in UK). Small and medium businesses like his have so many such secondary deals going on, paying off protection money to the politicians, paying off the excise tax collectors...

    It is so rampant last quarter of 2016 the government demonetized 500 rupee and 1000 rupee currency notes. That is, all those notes were deemed not legal tender unless you can prove the source and deposit it in the bank.

    Real estate and gold are other places full of shady business accounting practices and black money havens. Given that reality, it would be difficult to persuade people like my uncle to switch to a fully accountable, traceable, transparent business system. Unless they can be assured they can dodge taxes, they won't touch it.

    Lest I give a too gloomy picture... Things are improving. The general public, despite all the inconveniences are fully supportive of the demonetizing of notes. The value of black money is discounted on the street. At some point the discounted value of black money in the street would become lower than the value of white money after paying taxes. At that point, honest businesses will enjoy so many benefits of smoother processing and efficiency etc, the economy will turn around and eschew off-the-book-transactions. Till that date comes, such initiatives by companies like google streamlining business ops will find it difficult to get traction.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  19. Right market for Google by unixisc · · Score: 2

    Given that Android is even more dominant in India than it is in the US, Google is targeting the right market. Small businesses are less likely to own computers, but more likely to own phones - be it Galaxies, Micromaxes, Karbonns et al. So if they come up w/ suites of mobile business packages that they can use, they'd be off to the races. Specially given that they seem to support at least a minimal amount of support for Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, et al

    Apple is hardly present in India and unlikely to grow, and Microsoft has pulled the plug on Lumias and PCs ain't selling much there. Looks like the perfect storm for Pillai's company

  20. Google Really, Really Wants To Bring cheap labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google Really, Really Wants To Bring cheap labor Online

    If this was about small businesses, Google would be doing the same for USA small businesses. But Google is out of touch, and thinks ONLY overseas is the only place, especially third world countries, that are worthy.