Google launches service to take internet to India malls, cafes

The company currently offers free wi-fi access to 32 cities and 50 railway stations

Global technology giant Google has said that the number of local language internet users would jump to 400 million by 2020, from 150 million now. The company on Tuesday launched a host of products especially for India including Google station under which it plans to bring wifi facilities to malls, public spaces, among others.

"After connecting 32 cities and 50 railway stations and 3.5 million railwire wifi users, we are bringing in Google station. We don't want to stop at wifi in railway stations. We want to give fast wifi for everyone," said Caeser Sengupta, vice-president of product management and oversees product strategy for Google.

Google is looking for partners with whom it will work on putting wi-fi in public spaces. It is learnt that the company may monetize this service in the near future.

The company is also working on a host of products around regional languages. In the second edition of Google for India event the company said that it is going extensive work on making searches more comprehensive in Indian languages. The company is also launching voice based vernacular search platform. Right now the platform works in Hindi but the company plans to make it available in other Indian languages too.

At the first edition of Google for India last December, company's top boss Sundar Pichai launched a host of India specific products.

India is the third largest startup ecosystem, Google said. The company has invested around Rs 130 crore in the country's startup ecosystem till now. The company has launched Google Launchpad and Google Accelerator investing in mid to late startup through Google Capital. It is training mobile app developers and has till now enrolled around 200,000 students.

In addition, the company is rolling out its AI based search platform Google Assistant, which is available in its latest offering messenger Allo, in Hindi.