Google For India 2022: The Indian Internet Story Has Come Of Age

Speaking at the Google For India event for 2022, Google India head and VP Sanjay Gupta said that the Indian internet story has come of age, alluding to the maturity within India’s tech economy that surfaced this year.

“The Indian internet story has come of age,” said Gupta.

Gupta was speaking during the welcome address of the Google event, happening in person for the first time since 2019.

The Google India head said that India’s tech industry was worth $230 Bn at the moment and is set to become worth $1 Tn in a few years. Speaking more on the coming-of-age of India’s internet story, Gupta said that India’s internet user base has already reached 700 Mn.

“India is on a momentum that will bring a billion Indians online by 2025,” Gupta added.

However, Gupta said there were different types of internet usage, which depend on the level of access and participation from the users’ end and the respective use cases.

The India head for the tech major said that new users access the internet via search, video or social media. This forms the access layer of the internet.

Explaining the second layer of internet usage, participation, Gupta said the layer forms users which participate in the digital economy via ecommerce, net banking and digital payments. This layer consists of 350 Mn users, according to Google.

The third layer of access, dubbed progress by Google, is made of users that harness the power of technology through knowledge and upskilling. However, there are only 50 Mn users in this layer.

“This drop-off represents a huge missed opportunity, not just for people, but for the entire digital economy as well,” said Gupta, adding, “Even today, the internet is not fully inclusive. It is text first, largely dependent on English and more worryingly, safer for some and less safe for others.”

Gupta noted that these barriers were causing massive drop-offs across all levels of the digital value chain. He added that with AI, Google will aim to build ‘ramps’ for people to climb up the digital value chain.

“With AI, text can convert to video in an instant and translation to English to any language can be done at scale. AI can bring a quantum leap in online safety through advanced threat detection,” said Gupta. “Google’s mission in India is to make the internet helpful and safer for 1 bn Indians,” he added.

No company or government can do it alone, the VP added.

He said that Google has invested in large companies like Jio and Airtel and startups such as Open, VerSe, DotPe, Glance, SimSim, ProgCap, Cropin and others. 

Moving forward, it will target early-stage startups with a particular focus on women-led entrepreneurs. The tech major will make investments via the $10 Bn Google for India Digitisation Fund. The early-stage startups listed by Google at the event included Adda, KukuFM and twid.

“Technology can make everyone’s lives better, we just need to build the technology,” said Gupta at the end of his address at Google for India 2022.

India’s digital economy has seen tremendous growth in recent years, with the continued growth of the startup ecosystem. However, as the year 2022 showed us, only the startups with the best fundamentals would survive the ongoing funding winter, which shows no signs of letting up.