Reaching the next billion internet users from Singapore

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Google selects Singapore

To tap into emerging markets, Google is looking to South-east Asia, which has an internet penetration of 58 per cent (In comparison, Northern American has 88 per cent internet penetration, whereas it is 94 per cent in Northern Europe) to attract its next billion users – but the venture is not without its challenges.

As most South-east Asian users who come online for the first time are from developing countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, Google is mindful that their experience will be very different from that of users in developed countries like the United States.

“Their main, and in most cases only, ‘computer’ is a low-cost smartphone,” says Caesar Sengupta, Vice President of Google’s Next Billion Users team.

“Connectivity is expensive in relation to incomes and frequently patchy – websites, maps and especially videos can take minutes to load and often time out. And for many, there is just not enough relevant content available in their language.”

While Sengupta concedes that “these aren’t easy problems to fix”, his company is committed to doing a better job of addressing them.

“That’s why we’re building a new engineering team in Singapore – to get closer to the next billion users coming online and to develop products that will work for them,” he says.

These product innovations include faster searches that use less data, offline functionality for Google Maps and YouTube, and the translation of content into Asian languages.

The goal, Sengupta stresses, is to “help people access the info they need, even when their data is limited”.
Accessing South-east Asia from Singapore
Choosing Singapore as the location for its Asia-Pacific headquarters is a key aspect of Google’s strategy to increase its penetration into South-east Asia.

The company is also investing heavily to develop its Singapore office into a Centre of Innovation(COI) that will power the company’s growth in the region. In August this year, Google announced that it is working on a third facility in Jurong West, nearby its existing buildings. The expansion will bring its long-term investment in Singapore data centres to US$ 850 million (S$1.16 billion).

“In many ways, Singapore feels like the best place to do this,” says Sengupta. “It is hyper-connected, with some of the fastest internet speeds in the world. And it sits at the centre of a region with half of the world’s current internet users, and more new internet users coming online every day than anywhere else in the world.”

In addition to superior connectivity and proximity to key South-east Asian markets, Singapore offers a long-term government commitment to becoming the region’s digital capital via its Smart Nation initiative. The Smart Nation initiative aims to transform Singapore into a leading economy powered by digital innovation.

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