Google aims to get 20 million Indian SMEs online by 2017

Google India will get 20 million small and medium enterprises (SME) online by 2017 by using a simple mobile-based app called 'Google My Business', that will help businesses to create and manage their information across Google products for free in both Hindi and English, a company statement said here on Tuesday.

With over 300 million plus internet users and over 6 million new internet users coming online every month, Indian users are increasingly looking for information about businesses online, it noted.

"In the next three years, India will have over 500 million internet users - and these users will need access to all kind of information in their local languages. Indian SMEs have struggled to build and maintain their online presence.

"Search experience for local business in India is broken today and we want to fix it by connecting businesses with their customers," said Rajan Anandan, vice president & managing director, Google South East Asia & India.

"'Google My Business' is our first mobile based product initiative for SMEs and we have seen immediate adoption of it in India, in the last 5 months during our pilot phase, over a million SMEs have found a place on the internet, and we are engaging 25,000 new SMEs every week. Our moon shot - aim is to get 20 million SMEs online in the next three years," he added.