In a move to tap the growing small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India, search giant Google on Wednesday launched its ?India Get Your Business Online? programme wherein it will offer free websites to an estimated 5 lakh small and medium businesses (SMB) in three years.
The initiative will offer free website, personalised domain and hosting and Google has already launched it in 18 countries in the last one year.
?While India is home to an estimated 8 million SMBs, only about 5% have a website. Further, e-commerce is expected to touch $40 million in 4-5 years from the current $5 million,? said Google India MD and VP (sales and operations) Rajan Anandan.
Google has partnered with the US-based HostGator for the initiative. SMBs do not have to pay any charge in the first year, but after that they can choose to pay a monthly pay-as-you-go to maintain their website using HostGator. ?The first phase for website development for SMBs is restricted to the web but the next will be expanded to mobile also,? Anandan added.