Google India's Effort to Bring 500,000 Indian SMBs Online For Free
Offers a free domain, hosting and website to all SMBs in India; www.indiagetonline.inGoogle India announced the launch of a nationwide initiative to help small medium businesses in India to get online with a free website, personalized domain and hosting. Called ‘India Get Your Business Online,’ this initiative aims to break down the barriers that stop small businesses from getting online -- by offering a quick, easy and free tool to set up and host a website. Google’s goal is to help 500,000 small medium businesses in India to get online in next three years through this program, working with web hosting provider HostGator. Small business owners in India can logon to www.indiagetonline.in and use the tool to get a get a free, easy-to-build website and web hosting for one year powered by HostGator. Businesses also get a customized domain .in name and free tools, training and resources to succeed online.
Highlighting Google’s commitment to India, Nikesh Arora SVP & Chief Business Officer of Google Inc. said, “Google has always believed in the power of the Internet to help small businesses thrive and to make people's lives easier by making information more accessible and useful. We recognize India as a high growth and high potential Internet market in the world and we’re committed to play the role of a catalyst to bring the benefits of the internet economy to small and medium businesses in India. We have received tremendous response to this initiative in other countries and we’re very excited to bring this initiative to India and empower local businesses as more and more Indian users get online.”
While India is home to an estimated 8 million small and medium businesses, only about 400,000 have a website. The initiative is designed to bridge the information gap that exists online due to the lack of presence of local Indian businesses on the Internet. Businesses often believe that getting online is too complex, costly and time-consuming; this perception prevents many SMBs from taking the first step towards building an online presence. Google India and HostGator plan to change that through this initiative. In addition, HostGator will also offer free support in creating, hosting and managing the website for a period of one year without any cost through its toll free call centers 1800-266-3000.
Advantages:
- Free: It’s free to set up your website. The domain is free for 1 year, and it’s free to maintain your website for 12 months.
- Quick: The website tool takes 15 minutes from sitting down to being found online
- Easy: You don’t need to be a tech whiz to get started. All you need to start is your address, phone number, TAN/CIN or PAN to verify you as a business
- The website is simple because customers are looking for simple information online
- If you want to make your website work harder, you’ll have access to steady stream of free tips and tools from the Getting Indian Business Online team and a free coupon of worth Rs. 2500 INR advertising trial from Google AdWords to help promote your site.
- Gives you your own .in domain
- You get a Google Apps account - free personalized email ids
- Other features include photos/logos, integration with social media platforms
- After the first year, SMBs can choose to pay a monthly pay-as-you-go to maintain their website using HostGator.
- At the end of the first year, they’ll have to pay a nominal charge if they wish to renew their domain name. They can cancel their website at any time.
Google also opened up Vault for businesses in India. More about that here
