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The Google India Wednesday announced new initiatives for small businesses in the country. The event was spearheaded by Google CEO Sundar Pichai along with other senior leaders. IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also addressed the media during the event. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced ‘Digital Unlocked‘ courses in association with B-school ISB and FICCI.He also announced a new website called ‘My Business‘, which will enable small business to get a website within just 10 minutes.”We don’t want to miss the digital revolution and want to become one of the leaders in the same,” said IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Google India Unveils Digital Unlocked Training, My Business Websites for SMBs
According to a recent Google and KPMG study rising internet penetration and greater uptake of digital by SMBs in India could help increase their contribution to India’s GDP from the current 37.5% to to 46-48% by 2020. Digitally engaged businesses are able to grow their customer base significantly with 52% catering to customers beyond their home city versus only 29% offline SMBs. However, the study found that 68% Indian SMBs are still offline due to a lack of understanding of the benefits of digital technologies and technical skills to get them online.
The training for Digital Unlocked is present across online, offline and mobile. The offline training is being conducted in partnership with FICCI and over the next three years, 5,000 workshops will be held across 40 Indian cities. The online training comprises a set of 90 self-paced video tutorials, curated specifically for India and is available free of charge at g.co/digital unlocked. The tutorials cover a comprehensive set of topics ranging from building a web presence and driving online growth to reaching customers over mobile and video digital and email marketing to social media. The trainings are certified by Google, Indian School of Business and FICCI.
Moreover, Google also launched Primer, a free mobile app uniquely designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. It is available for download through the Google Play and iOS app store. Primer also works offline and is currently available in English and Hindi with Tamil, Telugu and Marathi versions coming shortly.
My Business Websites will be available for Google My Business users later in the year. The new feature will provide simple, templated and editable websites for small businesses created from the information and photos provided by them on Google Maps. My Business Websites will be available in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, and Malayalam.
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