Google India and digital marketing company Getit Infoservices have joined hands to encourage small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to go online, get customers, and transactions on the internet.
“Digigains”, a seminar for SMEs, was organised by the two companies here on Friday as part of this initiative. It was planned in more cities in the country.
Sidharth Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Getit Infoservices, told presspersons that Google products and services would be reached out to SMEs through the Getit outlets too now.
A lot of SMEs were not used to the digital medium and the seminar was to help them understand the concept of digital marketing, generate revenue online, get customers to their website, and have online transactions.
Sachin Sharma, Partner Manager – Channel Partnerships, Google India, said India was the third largest internet market globally with 13 crore internet users.
The country was expected to have about 30 crore internet users by 2015. This would mean higher ecommerce activities. The volume of ecommerce in the country now was Rs. 1,200 crore annually. It was expected to increase to Rs. 4,000 crore by 2015 and substantial use of internet would be on the mobile platform.
In such a scenario, Google AdWords would give SMEs wider reach, relevance and cost effectiveness if they would be present online. Google India was already servicing more than 30,000 SMEs through its various products.
The potential was huge for those looking for local businesses, business to business opportunities, and promoting brands on the social media.
Mr. Gupta added that Getit reached out to 1.2 million SMEs across the country a year through direct contact. It was looking at having five per cent to 10 per cent of them convert to this SME programme in a year or two.
A lot of SMEs were not used to the digital medium