Majority of 51 Million Indian SMEs are Still Offline: Google

Around 68 percent of the 51 million Small and Medium Businesses or Enterprises  (SMBs/SMEs) in the country are offline, said Shalini Girish, Director, Marketing Solutions, Google.

Girish shared findings from a joint research study with KPMG titled 'Impact of Internet and Digitisation on SMBs in India'.

With around 400 million Internet users, 300+ million smartphone users, India is now being seen as the go-to destination for online research and growth.

"The study reiterates that 68 percent of the 51 million Indian SMBs are offline and that digitally engaged SMBs grow twice as fast compared to offline SMBs," Girish said in Kolkata.

Quoting the report, she said digitally engaged businesses are able to grow their customer base significantly with 52 percent catering to customers beyond their home city versus only 29 percent offline SMBs.

Highlighting the macroeconomic impact of the Internet, the research found that rising penetration and greater uptake for digital means by SMBs could help increase their contribution to India's GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46 to 48 percent by 2020.

According to Google's analysis, SMEs find it complex and expensive to enter into the digital space. Google now plans to change the game, by helping SMEs induce growth into business, with the release of a brand new feature called Website With Google My Business. This is an add-on component to the existing business-focused portal and aims to help you build a mobile-optimized website within minutes — even via your smartphone. It is specifically focused towards small and medium-scale enterprises.

The said feature will provide simple, templated, editable websites where you’ll be able to pull together your data and photos from Google Search and Maps. The Mountain View giant will then handle the design and searchability of such businesses on its various platforms, such as Search and Maps. You can either gain access to a free domain or buy one yourself.