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When <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=sundar+pichai&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Google CEO Sundar Pichai</a> visited India in December last year, he said the search engine giant had plans to tap the local engineering talent pool as well as the domestic market. 
 
It seems Pichai is keeping his word as apparently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=google&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Google</a> just bought 1 lakh square feet office space on lease in Bagmane World Technology Centre in Bengaluru. 
 
"The company is also looking for additional space in Hyderabad, apart from setting up its largest campus," ET quoted a person as saying. 
 During his visit, Pichai had said <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> will ramp up our engineering investments at Bengaluru and Hyderabad facilities and even invest nearly Rs 1,000 crore in building a new campus in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli area, biggest campus outside the US. 
 
Google wants to double the number of its head count in India to 13,000 by 2019. 
 
Pichai wants to make the internet more relevant for Indians and set up free Wi-Fi across 100 train stations across the country. 
 
It is noteworthy that Google had leased 430,000 sq ft of office space from Unitech in Signature Towers II project in Gurgaon last year. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Sundar Pichai is keeping
his word as Google just took 1 lakh square feet office space on lease in
Bengaluru

<ul><li>Google has announced that it will invest a whopping $10 billion in India through the Google for India Digitization Fund. </li><li><keyword id="164502" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sundar-Pichai">Sundar Pichai</keyword>, the CEO of Google said that the investment will be done over the next 5-7 years. </li><li>The company has identified four investment areas in India.</li></ul>Google has announced that it will invest a whopping $10 billion in India through the Google for India Digitization Fund. During the company’s annual Google For India event which went digital this time, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google said that the investment will be done over the next 5-7 years. Google will invest in the following four areas <ul><li>First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other</li><li>Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs.</li><li>Third, empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation.</li><li>Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture. </li></ul>“There’s no question we are facing a difficult moment today, in India and around the world. The dual challenges to our health and to our economies have forced us to rethink how we work and how we live. But times of challenge can lead to incredible moments of innovation. Our goal is to ensure India not only benefits from the next wave of innovation, but leads it,” said Pichai. Google follows Facebook – partners with CBSE Google has also announced a partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education, just days after social media giant Facebook too had partnered with the board. Through its partnership, Google aims to enable over 1 million teachers across 22,000 schools in India. The tech giant also announced an additional investment of $1 million into Kaivalya Education Foundation to train 700,000 teachers on online education to impart knowledge to children in low income communities in India. The company’s marketing head for India and Southeast Asia Sapna Chadha also spoke about Google’s efforts in vernacular language education in India. She said that over the last few years, Google.org, Google’s philanthropic venture, has invested $12 million into companies like TheTeacherApp, Pratham and Central Square Foundation to create content in local languages. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/amazon-reportedly-told-employees-they-have-to-delete-tiktok-from-their-phones-due-to-security-risks/articleshow/76900325.cms">Amazon told employees to delete TikTok from their phones — then walked back the policy and said it was an 'error'</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/photographer-of-the-viral-black-panther-images-from-india-shares-his-story/articleshow/76830618.cms">INTERVIEW: Shaaz Jung opens up about the blood, sweat and years behind the viral images of a rare black panther</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/intel-will-speed-up-mukesh-ambanis-5g-run-power-him-with-ai-and-possibly-a-jio-laptop/articleshow/76780290.cms">Intel will speed up Mukesh Ambani’s 5G run, power him with AI and possibly a Jio laptop⁠— all in return for massive amount of data</a>

Google will invest $10 billion in India, as CEO Sundar Pichai says India will lead the next wave of innovation

New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday announced a Google for India digitisation fund through which, the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore or approximately $10 billion over the next five to seven years to help India go digital. "We will do this through a mix of equity investment, partnerships and an operational infrastructure ecosystem in India. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy," Pichai said during the Google for India virtual conference. The investment will focus on four areas important to India's digitisation-- first enabling affordable access to information to every Indian in their own language. "Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India's unique needs. Third, empowering businesses to continue or embark on digital transformation. And fourth, leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence for social good in areas like health, agriculture and education," the Google CEO said. India's Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were also present during the conference. --IANS gb/na

Google to invest Rs 75,000 crore to boost digitisation in India

It’s been almost a year that Google set up its late-stage investment arm in India so that the local start-ups can be doubled down, and now, the tech giant is set to task <keyword id="3275181" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kaushik-Anand">Kaushik Anand</keyword>, California-based company executive and former Sequoia Capital investment analyst, to drive Google Capital's India outpost. The news was shared with ET by two people directly aware of the matter, on the condition of anonymity. 
 
Anand is currently based out of Mountain View, California, but would move to India soon and push Google Capital's late-stage bets in the country. 
 "(Google Capital has) done four investments here. We've got a Google Capital team member here - we will announce that soon. He is going to be based here. You're going to see us do more and more investments here," <keyword id="249393" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajan-Anandan">Rajan Anandan</keyword>, MD for Google South East Asia and India, had said last week. 
 
Anandan had also said that Google Capital, which has an annual corpus of $300 million for investments had decided to bet on India because of the shortage of late-stage investors in the country. 
 
<a href="http://chennai36.iitm.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/277299_4514872186405_556682676_o.jpg">Image source</a>

Kaushik Anand could be moving to India to head Google start-up investments

Has Google reached saturation point in the US and Europe? It moves where the action is and preferably be in from the start. The rapidly burgeoning Asian market is an attractive investment and Google is naturally keen to tap into this sector., and Indian market is one among them. 
 Reasons why Google is thinking of investing in <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> are many. For one, investment in India is preferred for the high level of technical skill and for the comparatively more salubrious business environment. Second, India is the world’s 3rd largest economy and is the fastest developing startup system in the world with a phenomenal growth of 270% over the past six years in the startup market. And third, India is home to about 800 startups every year, many of which are highly successful. 
 
 
<keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="investments">Investments</keyword> Sources indicate <keyword id="1817280" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Capital">Google Capital</keyword> has about US $ 300 million in its kitty. But Google Capital is not going to take a whole lot of risks in its investments in India. It will invest in growing companies with already proven track records. 
 
International startups have already entered the Indian start up market. Twitter has purchased Zipdial, Facebook has taken over Little Eye Labs and Yahoo brought Startup Bookpad. Tiger Global is another major investor that is planning to invest a large slice of it US $ 2.5 billion in the Indian start up market. 
 <keyword id="2741615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Japanese-SoftBank">Japanese SoftBank</keyword> has earmarked US $ 10 billion for investing in India. It invested US $ 627 million in Snapdeal - an Indian ecommerce company as well as investing in Ola, a competitor to Google Ventures funded Uber taxi app. Flipkart, another major Indian online player was able to raise US$ 1.9 billion investment. Amazon too is going to fund its Indian expansion program to the tune of US $ 2 billion. It seems global investing giants are all heading to India. 
 
Google too wants a slice of the Indian pie. Last year it kickstarted with an investment of US $ 31 million in Chennai-based FreshDesk (a cloud-based customer care platform). The second investment to the tune of US $ 12 million was made last month in CommonFloor a growing real estate online portal operating from Bengaluru. 
 
It is significant that out of the total 11 investments of Google Capital two are in India, indicative of the healthy potential of the Indian startup market. 
 
Other investments in India 
Google has invested outside of its ‘Google Capital’ and ‘Google Ventures’ in India. It purchased Indian startup Impermium. Besides fiscal investments, more significantly and innovatively Google will guide and mentor the most promising Indian startups and provide them with launch pad sessions. 
 
Known for its commitment to science and technology, Google has through its Google X prize granted US $ 1 million to Indian space startup. 
David Lawee, Google Capital Partner, had said to the Wall Street Journal that it makes a lot of sense to focus on India right now taking into account the increasing use of smartphones and its very active startup community. 
 
Location of Google Capital office in India 
This is a rather hypothetical question one may ask, but indications are it will be either in India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru or New Delhi, the capital city. But nothing has been confirmed. However, it has confirmed that Google plans to hire an India-based Google Capital representative. 
 
It is heartening that Google is investing both fiscally and technically in India and it is indicative of the high degree of viability and success of the Indian startup environment. 
 
(Images: www.lifehack.org)

Why
has Google Capital moved out of its US comfort zone?

<ul><li><keyword id="249393" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajan-Anandan">Rajan Anandan</keyword>, VP for Google South East Asia and India, has called it quits at the company. </li><li>While he will stay on at Google until the end of April, he will then be joining <keyword id="563136" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-India">Sequoia India</keyword>, a top VC firm. </li><li>Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director, Sales will be replacing him as the interim MD at <keyword id="45395" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-India">Google India</keyword>. </li></ul>Rajan Anandan, the VP for Google South East Asia and India, has resigned from the Internet giant to join the VC firm Sequoia Capital’s India and SEA wing. Anandan joins Sequoia as managing director and will be part of its leadership team. He will also lead Sequoia’s accelerator program Surge. Surge has on offer $1.5 million of seed capital along with “company-building workshops, global immersion trips and support from a community of exceptional founders”, according to an official blog from the company. “Rajan’s deep understanding of technology, significant operating expertise and a track record of growing tech businesses across the region will help Surge founders scale and build the transformational businesses of tomorrow,” said Shailendra J Singh, managing director at Sequoia, in a post on LinkedIn. While Anandan will stay on at Google until the end of April, the company has appointed Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director, Sales as the interim MD. Anandan has often been credited for having catapulted Google’s growth in India, over his tenure of eight years in the company. However, his entry into investments is not new. Anandan has been an active angel investor and also a member of the Indian Angel Network. Seen at many <keyword id="138263" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword> events in the National Capital, Anandan has invested in startups like Innov8, Lucideus, Buttercups etc. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-will-groom-these-10-indian-startups-that-use-ai-and-machine-learning/articleshow/68384856.cms">Google will groom these 10 Indian startups that use AI and machine learning</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-rajan-anandan-vp-google-india-says-that-it-is-the-beginning-of-the-indian-start-up-boom/articleshow/58144238.cms">Exclusive: Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India says that it is the Beginning of the Start-up Boom in India</a>

Google India head Rajan Anandan quits to join VC firm Sequoia

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has some amazing news for <keyword id="2023759" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups-in-India">startups in India</keyword>. Pichai, while delivering a keynote address at the <keyword id="3173384" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="GoogleForIndia">#GoogleForIndia</keyword> event, said Google wanted to give India much more back to the country. 
 
“India is a key driver to Google’s growth. Google Capital to invest $20 million for Indian startups to support crowd computing,” said Pichai. 
 
Pichai wants to tap talent in India and plans to scale engineering and business, thereby revamp campuses in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Google also has plans to step up hiring in Bengaluru. 
 
“Google will ramp up engineering presence in Hyderabad to make products in India,” said the Google CEO. 
 
Speaking about the Android systems, Pichai said that by 2016, there will be more Android users in India as compared to the US. 
 
Pichai also spoke about enhancing wi-fi systems in India. 
 
“We will be rolling out 400 Google-powered public wi-fis by the end of 2016. Testing in Mumbai Railway station is underway currently. There are no plans to monetise now,” he added. 
 
Pichai will be meeting Google executives, media, developers, entrepreneurs and marketers during his stay in India. 
 
The Google CEO will also meet resident Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 
 
Pichai will meet students of Shri Ram College of Commerce for a chat session. 
 
 (Image: Indiatimes)

CEO Sundar Pichai says Google will step up hiring, invest $20 million in Indian startups

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6355629" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword> is to invest $4.5 billion into Indian internet company Jio Platforms, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai confirmed on Wednesday.</li><li>Jio Platforms owns <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s biggest telecoms provider <keyword id="6354504" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="reliance-jio">Reliance Jio</keyword> as well as a suite of homegrown apps such as Zoom rival JioMeet.</li><li>The investment gives Google a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms, providing the deal is cleared by India's regulators.</li><li>Reliance Jio's founder, Mukesh Ambani, is currently the sixth-richest man in the world, with a net wealth of $72.4 billion.</li></ul>Google will invest $4.5 billion in disruptive, popular Indian internet firm Jio Platforms, the company <a href="https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/bringing-internet-access-millions-more-indians-jio">confirmed on Wednesday</a>.The deal gives Google a 7.7% stake in the company, pending approval by Indian regulators.The two firms plan to develop an entry-level Android phone that could bring millions more Indian users online.Google CEO Sundar Pichai, announcing the deal on Wednesday, <a href="https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status/1283332612308627456">tweeted</a>: "Everyone should have access to the internet. Proud to partner with <a href="https://twitter.com/reliancejio">@reliancejio</a> to increase access for the hundreds of millions in India who don't own a smartphone with our 1st investment of $4.5B from the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoogleForIndia?src=hashtag_click">#GoogleForIndia</a> Digitization Fund."A subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance, Jio Platforms owns India's biggest mobile operator Jio, which has a subscriber base of 369.93 million and more than 30% market share.Jio Platforms also owns a suite of homegrown internet apps, including Zoom rival JioMeet and music streaming service JioSaavn.The funding is part of a slew of Google initiatives in India. CEO Sundar Pichai recently held a video call with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. And the $4.5 billion cash injection comes from a new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-alphabet-india-health-agriculture-education-tech-ai-sundar-pichai-2020-7?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">$10 billion fund that Google plans to invest in India</a>.Pichai is also friendly with the founding family behind Reliance Jio, the Ambani family, attending scion Akash Ambani's wedding in Mumbai in 2019.Other major tech firms have already invested billions in Jio Platforms. <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> announced a $5.7 billion investment <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-invests-in-jio-india-mobile-internet-service-2020-4?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">in April</a>. Qualcomm announced this week <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/13/tech/qualcomm-reliance-jio-investment-intl-hnk/index.html">it was investing around $100 million</a>, while Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, KKR, Vista Equity Partners, and many others have invested billions in recent months.<h2>The 'Jio effect' has had a huge impact on Silicon Valley</h2>Jio's rise in India has been meteoric.The Reliance subsidiary has brought millions of Indians online for the first time over the past four years by offering free or incredibly cheap 4G data.This wave of new internet users has benefited the likes of Google and Facebook, both of which are experiencing saturation in the West and are increasingly looking at Asia and emerging economies to provide their "next billion users." Facebook explicitly called out the positive effect of cheap data plans in emerging economies on its user growth back in 2016, and repeatedly describes India is its fastest-growing market.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reliance-jio-millions-of-indians-online-reshaped-internet-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">As Business Insider previously reported</a>, one side effect of millions of new Indian users flooding the internet was the dethroning of popular gaming YouTuber PewDiePie as the top creator on the platform. He was replaced by T-Series, an Indian record label that garners hundreds of millions of views by posting Indian music videos to YouTube and is little-known outside the country.Meanwhile, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani is now the sixth-richest person in the world, per <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">Bloomberg's Billionares Index</a>, surpassing Tesla CEO Elon Musk with a net wealth of $72.4 billion.

Google is investing $4.5 billion in India's mobile internet giant Reliance Jio and the 2 will make a new affordable Android phone

<ul><li><keyword id="2750705" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Pay">Google Pay</keyword> will soon start offering <keyword id="113735" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="gold-investment">gold investment</keyword> options on its platform. </li><li>According to reports, it may also offer mutual funds and insurance plans. </li><li><keyword id="6357120" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm">Paytm</keyword> had introduced <keyword id="4465249" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-gold">digital gold</keyword> investment in India in April 2017.</li></ul>Google Pay is stepping up its game to fight its Indian rivals Paytm and <keyword id="6357886" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="phonepe">PhonePe</keyword>. Following in their footsteps, Google Pay will now offer gold investment options to consumers. According to <a href="https://www.livemint.com/industry/banking/google-pay-starts-offering-digital-gold-mutual-funds-coming-soon-1553721132284.html">reports</a>, Google Pay is not just toying with the idea of selling digital gold but also mutual funds and insurance. The digital payments wing of Google has already updated its terms of service to say “GAP shall mean the Gold Accumulation Plan provided by MMTC” and “Gold Account means such account on Google Pay which has been linked to the GAP.” However, Google Pay’s gold offering comes two years late in the game. India’s payments unicorn Paytm had introduced digital gold investments to its users in April 2017. In August 2018, Paytm had <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/paytm-gold-to-touch-1-5-ton-in-gold-transactions/articleshow/65510054.cms">said</a> that it is going to cross 1.5 tons in gold transactions through its platform with a 70% share of MMTC-PAMP’s virtual gold offerings in the country. MMTC-PAMP India Pvt. Ltd. is an industry leader to bring global standards of excellence to the Indian precious metals industry. As of September 2018, Google Pay had announced that it has 25 million users in India. It seems that payments platforms in India are in for a big fight with Google Pay’s plans to push boundaries and offer digital gold, mutual fund services and more – features which Paytm has already been offering. But the rigorous push from Amazon Pay, with its offline ‘scan and pay’ service too is going to make a dent into the consumer numbers of its rivals. According to <a href="https://thenextweb.com/in/2019/03/22/wechat-pay-to-reportedly-take-on-google-pay-and-paytm-in-india-later-this-year/">reports,</a> the Chinese giant WeChat is also eyeing India’s payments market and aims to enter the segment in late 2019. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-wallet-creator-osama-bediers-startup-poynt-will-launch-in-india-in-2019/articleshow/68145220.cms">The creator of Google Wallet is making a big bet on India via his 4-year old startup</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/amazon-india-and-amazon-pay-sales-may-increase-as-the-online-retail-giant-expands-physical-presence/articleshow/68590870.cms">After 7 years in India, Amazon has finally learnt that there is more money offline</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/from-swiggy-vs-bigbasket-to-paytm-vs-bookmyshow-indian-startups-are-growing-by-becoming-rivals/articleshow/68351389.cms">Do Swiggy, OYO, and Paytm lack Silicon Valley’s planning and conviction?</a>

Google Pay wants to offer Indians their favourite investment option – gold

<ul><li>Jio Platforms and Google have entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop the entry-level affordable smartphone with optimisations to the Android operating system and the Play Store. </li><li>Reliance Jio launched a feature phone called JioPhone in 2017 that currently has an installed base of 20 per cent among the country's feature phone users.</li><li>Google announced to invest Rs 33,737 crore ($4.5 billion) in Jio Platforms for an equity stake of 7.73 per cent. This is the first investment from the $10 billion 'Google For India Digitisation Fund' announced earlier this week</li></ul> To create an affordable yet powerful smartphone ecosystem for the masses in the country, Reliance Jio Platforms and Google on Wednesday announced to launch an entry-level Android smartphone soon. Jio Platforms and Google have entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop the entry-level affordable smartphone with optimisations to the Android operating system and the Play Store. "I am excited that our joint collaboration will focus on increasing access for hundreds of millions of Indians who don't currently own a smartphone while improving the mobile experience for all," said Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. "Together, we are excited to rethink, from the ground up, how millions of users in India can become owners of smartphones," Pichai said in a statement. Reliance Jio launched a feature phone called JioPhone in 2017 that currently has an installed base of 20 per cent among the country's feature phone users. "Google has empowered millions of Indians to access helpful information and, like Jio, is a force for change and innovation. Together, we hope to play a strong facilitative role in the transformative journey of building a new, Digital India," said <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>, Chairman and Managing Director of <keyword id="6355199" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="reliance-industries">Reliance Industries</keyword>. In a mega investment announcement, Google announced to invest Rs 33,737 crore ($4.5 billion) in Jio Platforms for an equity stake of 7.73 per cent. This is the first investment from the $10 billion 'Google For India Digitisation Fund' announced earlier this week, which aims to accelerate India's digital economy over the next five to seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. According to Google, the majority of people in India still don't have access to the Internet, and fewer still own a smartphone. Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint Research, told IANS that Jio has the potential to undercut its rivals in pricing as we have seen before. "Google's partnership will give it more flexibility to offer stable hardware and software experience. Individually, both Jio with initial 4G smartphone launches and Google with Android One programme did their best in the past to capture entry-level smartphone user base but didn't succeed," Pathak explained. This partnership aims to target the entry-level smartphone segment (less that Rs 10,000) which sells anywhere close to 60 million smartphones annually in India. "However, we see this happening once 5G networks are live," said Pathak. Google said it wants to work with Jio and other leaders in the local ecosystem to ensure that smartphones together with the apps and services in the Play Store - are within reach for many more Indians across the country. "We believe the pace of Indian innovation means that the experiences we create for India can ultimately be expanded to the rest of the world," said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and VP, Google India. Google opened its first Indian campuses in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in 2004. "Since then, we've made India central to our Next Billion Users initiative-designed to ensure the internet is useful for people coming online for the first time. We've improved our apps and services so they're relevant in more Indian languages and created offline versions for those facing network constraints," added Sameer Samat, VP, Product Management at Google. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/checkout-mukesh-ambani-reliance-industries-annual-general-meeting-highlights/articleshow/76976243.cms">Reliance and Google will build a new Android-based operating system for smartphones in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/jio-glass-akash-ambani-and-isha-ambani-announce-reliances-latest-product-which-offers-holographic-video-calls/articleshow/76977640.cms">Reliance to spin off its Oil-to-Chemicals business for new partnerships – Mukesh Ambani says Saudi Aramco deal is still in the works</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/google-picks-up-a-7-7-stake-in-mukesh-ambani-jio-for-33737-crore/articleshow/76977043.cms">Google picks up a 7.7% stake for ₹33,737 crore in Reliance Jio</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/jio-glass-akash-ambani-and-isha-ambani-announce-reliances-latest-product-which-offers-holographic-video-calls/articleshow/76977640.cms">Jio Glass – Akash Ambani and Isha Ambani announce Reliance’s latest product which offers holographic video calls</a>

Jio and Google to launch made-in India smartphones soon

<ul><li>India’s home-grown social network ShareChat is looking for its next round of investment, and Google may reportedly shell out $150 million to $200 million. </li><li>Even <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> has expressed its interest in ShareChat while chasing <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword>’s operations in the US. </li><li>Here’s why analysts think it makes sense that Google is looking to ShareChat in order to fill the gaps in its portfolio. </li></ul>Global tech giants are on the hunt for the next big social network. Facebook has rolled out Instagram Reels and Microsoft is looking to get its hands on the real deal by acquiring TikTok’s US business. Meanwhile, in India, Google is trying to finally get a piece of pie by investing in the country’s home-grown social networking platform, ShareChat. Neither Google nor ShareChat have commented on the <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/google-in-talks-with-sharechat-as-latter-scouts-for-150-200-million/articleshow/77582440.cms">Economic Times</a> article, which claims that the companies are in the preliminary stages of negotiating an investment between $150 to $200 million. Nonetheless, analysts believe that Google’s interest in the local-language network will fill in the missing pieces it has in its portfolio. “It’s very well possible that ShareChat will eventually get rebranded as something else for global markets,” founder and CEO of Greyhound Research, Sanchit Vir Gogia told Business Insider. What is ShareChat? ShareChat is a social networking platform, which, within itself, has a TikTok alternative — called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/sharechats-tiktok-rival-moj-crosses-5mn-downloads-on-google-play/articleshow/76811384.cms">Moj</a> — that has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/sharechat-rides-on-the-ban-on-apps-from-china-with-15-million-downloads-in-36-hours-but-is-itself-backed-by-chinese-investors/articleshow/76728139.cms">gained traction</a> since the ban on Chinese apps was announced in India. “This will enable Google to have a shot at its social networking ambitions but as of now, we see it as a strategic investment if it happens,” said counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="77062280" title="Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Sharechat see substantial increase in time-spent after the ban on Chinese apps: Kantar" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> The investment would not just give Google an opportunity to make headway in the social networking game, but also allow it to leverage ShareChat’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/users-created-over-100-mn-pieces-of-hindi-content-in-2019-sharechat/articleshow/72965102.cms">vernacular content</a>. It already lost out to Facebook in the west. ShareChat could provide the tech company its second coming. The Indian social network is currently the fastest growing local language social media platform in India with support for 14 Indian languages and more than 60 million active users. It’s one of the reasons that even Microsoft is <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/microsoft-in-prelim-talks-with-sharechat-indian-app-for-100-million-dollars-investment/story/412337.html">reportedly</a> looking to buy it even though it already has a monopoly in the professional networking space with LinkedIn. For ShareChat, an investment from Google would mean an investment by the ‘king of search engine optimisation’ (SEO), he explained. Brands pump in money where searchability is best — the more searchable a platform’s content is, the more likely it is to go viral. TikTok set the tone for social networks to travel from East to West The success of TikTok is only one case study on how the next big global social network won’t start out in the US or Europe but in Asia. But an app that’s popular in India will have a lot of users while being unable to general a lot of money. Indian users are diverse but they don’t like to spend online. “India is not a very high revenue market right now but it is a great testbed market from features, functionality and languages perspective,” said Gogia. Even with TikTok, one-third of its users were from India but the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tiktok-made-more-money-than-any-other-app-in-july-despite-losing-its-largest-overseas-market/articleshow/77369131.cms">majority of its revenue was still from China.</a> Test local, make money global Many companies like Microsoft and Google already test drive their products in India and other countries before taking them to the US. According to Gogia, Google’s interest in ShareChat could very well be an attempt to drive innovation from a low-risk country and take it across broader global networks. If you look at it from Google’s point of view, it will be able to use the abundance of data to train its algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) models in a very big way. “These models can then be taken into other countries from a monetisation perspective,” explained Gogia. Investing in ShareChat fits in perfectly with Google wanting a piece of the pie in India’s rising digital adoption. “This will give them rich insights on how the next half a billion first time internet users will embrace the internet and help in tweaking their services accordingly and not to forget the indirect benefits to their core advertisement segment,” said Pathak. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/the-heat-is-on-mark-zuckerberg-in-india-as-facebook-and-whatsapp-incur-the-ire-of-modis-rivals/articleshow/77575358.cms">The heat is on Mark Zuckerberg in India as Facebook and WhatsApp incur the ire of Modi's rivals</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/not-only-gmail-google-drive-meet-slides-docs-sites-groups-chat-keep-voice-services-also-facing-issue-as-per-google/articleshow/77652103.cms">Google Drive, Docs, Meet and others are working again after being out of service for over six hours</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/microsoft-is-ending-support-for-the-legacy-internet-explorer-but-its-only-going-to-affect-less-than-5-of-online-users/articleshow/77607727.cms">Microsoft is ending support for the legacy Internet Explorer — but it's only going to affect less than 5% of online users</a>

Google eyes India’s ShareChat as Microsoft goes after TikTok in the US — here’s why it makes sense

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) To create an affordable yet powerful smartphone ecosystem for the masses in the country, Reliance Jio Platforms and Google on Wednesday announced to launch an entry-level Android smartphone soon. Jio Platforms and Google have entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop the entry-level affordable smartphone with optimisations to the Android operating system and the Play Store. "I am excited that our joint collaboration will focus on increasing access for hundreds of millions of Indians who don't currently own a smartphone while improving the mobile experience for all," said Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. "Together, we are excited to rethink, from the ground up, how millions of users in India can become owners of smartphones," Pichai said in a statement. Reliance Jio launched a feature phone called JioPhone in 2017 that currently has an installed base of 20 per cent among the country's feature phone users. "Google has empowered millions of Indians to access helpful information and, like Jio, is a force for change and innovation. Together, we hope to play a strong facilitative role in the transformative journey of building a new, Digital India," said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. In a mega investment announcement, Google announced to invest Rs 33,737 crore ($4.5 billion) in Jio Platforms for an equity stake of 7.73 per cent. This is the first investment from the $10 billion 'Google For India Digitisation Fund' announced earlier this week, which aims to accelerate India's digital economy over the next five to seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. According to Google, the majority of people in India still don't have access to the Internet, and fewer still own a smartphone. Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint Research, told IANS that Jio has the potential to undercut its rivals in pricing as we have seen before. "Google's partnership will give it more flexibility to offer stable hardware and software experience. Individually, both Jio with initial 4G smartphone launches and Google with Android One programme did their best in the past to capture entry-level smartphone user base but didn't succeed," Pathak explained. This partnership aims to target the entry-level smartphone segment (less that Rs 10,000) which sells anywhere close to 60 million smartphones annually in India. "However, we see this happening once 5G networks are live," said Pathak. Google said it wants to work with Jio and other leaders in the local ecosystem to ensure that smartphones together with the apps and services in the Play Store - are within reach for many more Indians across the country. "We believe the pace of Indian innovation means that the experiences we create for India can ultimately be expanded to the rest of the world," said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and VP, Google India. Google opened its first Indian campuses in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in 2004. "Since then, we've made India central to our Next Billion Users initiative-designed to ensure the internet is useful for people coming online for the first time. We've improved our apps and services so they're relevant in more Indian languages and created offline versions for those facing network constraints," added Sameer Samat, VP, Product Management at Google. --IANS na/

Jio, Google to launch 'make in India' affordable smartphone

New Delhi, Jul 22 () Tech giant Google will approach the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to seek approval for its Rs 33,737 crore investment in Jio Platforms for a 7.73 per cent stake, according to sources. Google plans to approach the CCI for approval on the deal in the next two weeks, according to the sources privy to the development. When contacted, Google and Reliance Jio did not comment on the matter. The deal, which was announced on July 15 at Reliance Industries' annual general meeting, will see Google pick up 7.73 per cent stake in RIL's technology venture Jio Platforms for Rs 33,737 crore. The partnership will also see the two parties cooperate on technology initiatives, including development of affordable smartphones. California-based Alphabet Inc (parent company of Google) joined Facebook Inc, which opened the investment cycle in Jio Platforms by picking 9.99 per cent stake for Rs 43,573.62 crore. Last month, Facebook received CCI approval on its transaction that was carried out through a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary, Jaadhu Holdings LLC. Reliance has sold a 32.8 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd – the unit that houses India's youngest but largest telecom firm Jio Infocomm and apps – to 13 marquee firms including chipmaker Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, for over Rs 1.52 lakh crore. Jio Platforms, which is also amassing a wide range of services from music streaming to online retail and payments, is expected to use its 388 million mobile phone subscribers as the cornerstone of an e-commerce and digital services business to rival Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart. Google and Jio are partnering to build an operating system that could power affordable 4G and 5G smartphones. Also, JioMart, online shopping portal, and WhatsApp will be working closely to enable customers to seamlessly transact at mom-and-pop stores. Commenting on the partnership with Jio, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had said: "Through this partnership with Jio Platforms, we see the chance to have an even greater impact than either company could have alone. This partnership is a key part of the next chapter of investment in India... Our investment of USD 4.5 billion in Jio is the first -- and the biggest -- investment we will make through this fund (of USD 10 billion announced on July 13)." On July 13, Google announced its 'Google for India Digitisation Fund', wherein it will invest Rs 75,000 crore (about USD 10 billion) to accelerate India's digital economy over the next 5-7 years. SR MBI ANZ HRS

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