Official Google India Blog

Helping Indian startups drive global app innovations with MeitY Startup Hub

2021-10-27T10:00:00.001+05:30

India is one of the fastest-growing app markets in the world. Millions of Indians are increasingly relying on mobile apps to meet their core needs - be it learning a new skill, finding a job, achieving their health and fitness goals, or reading the latest news in their chosen language. India’s vibrant ecosystem of startups and developers is poised to harness this momentum and bring more exciting and innovative apps and services to the Indian user community.

The startup and developer ecosystem in India has been a positive force for good, inspiring the next generation of innovators, bringing useful services to Indian users, and helping address important and topical issues that matter most to them. Now these innovators are ready to build apps that will similarly resonate in the global market. With access to more than 2.5 billion active users in 190+ countries, Google Play enables these entrepreneurs to scale and build truly global businesses.

Google is therefore very pleased to announce a partnership with the MeitY Startup Hub, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Together, we will launch the Appscale Academy, a program to identify and support the most promising Indian startups and help them grow into successful global businesses. We are excited to see new innovations across various domains including gaming, healthcare, fintech, edtech, social impact and so much more.

Click to view video

It is particularly inspiring to see startup ecosystems being built across various parts of the country, and entrepreneurs develop solutions that are truly unique to India’s diverse needs. To support these uniquely Indian innovations, the Appscale Academy will have a special focus on emerging startups from Tier II and Tier III cities of India.

We are pleased to be partnering with the MeitY Startup Hub to tap into the vibrant Indian startup ecosystem and foster sustainable and scalable local and global businesses. We are excited to welcome the inaugural cohort of 100 startups and embark on this journey with them.

Key program details for applicants

A 6-month program to train early to mid-stage Indian startups on all aspects of building successful apps for the global market, including UX design, business model and monetization strategies, international expansion best practices, and data safety and security practices.
100 startups will get selected based on defined criteria by a panel of industry experts, members of MeitY Startup Hub, and Google Play.
The selected startups have access to virtual instructor-led webinars, self-learning material, and mentorship sessions with leading local and global industry leaders. Many will get an opportunity to pitch to leading venture capitalists.
To apply and for more details on the program, check out g.co/play/asa. Applications will be accepted starting today until 15th December 2021.

Posted by Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Play Partnerships, Google

Badshah’s #JugnuChallenge kicks off today, only on YouTube Shorts

2021-10-26T16:20:00.003+05:30

Universal Music Group (UMG) and YouTube, today, announced the launch of an exciting global dance challenge, #JugnuChallenge with Indian music superstar Badshah, happening only on YouTube Shorts.

Starting from 7 PM IST on Tuesday, 26 October, Badshah is inviting people to dance along with him to his catchy new track, ‘Jugnu’.

The challenge encourages fans to make a 15-second Shorts video right from the YouTube mobile app, recreating Badshah’s dance moves with their own unique, creative style. The Jugnu Challenge, set to a foot-tapping soundtrack, is set to light up this festive season, inspiring fans to share their unique Shorts creations with one another.

As part of the challenge, Badshah will be curating and spotlighting some of his favorite Shorts in a compilation video. For their creations to be considered, participants are encouraged to use the Jugnu track and hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #YouTubeShorts.*

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE ON YOUTUBE SHORTS

For dance challenge inspiration, get a closer look at the “Jugnu” choreography by watching Badshah’s latest YouTube Shorts on desktop HERE and on the mobile app HERE.

Creating a Short for the Jugnu Challenge only takes 15 seconds.

All that is needed to participate in this challenge is a smartphone and the Shorts camera built right in the YouTube mobile app. With the help of YouTube’s Shorts creation tools, anyone can easily recreate the “Jugnu” moves with their own style by following these simple steps on the YouTube mobile app:

Tap the “( + ) Create Icon” on the bottom navigation bar and select "Create a Short”.
Tap the “Add Music'' button and select Badshah’s “Jugnu.” The music will be queued up perfectly to 15 seconds without having to do anything else.
Hold the “Capture” button (red circle) to record your Short video clip.
Tap “Done” followed by “Next” to add video details. Be sure to include hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #Shorts
Hit “Upload” and you are good to go!

For more detailed instructions on how to create a YouTube Short on a computer, Android, iPhone or iPad please see here and for video instructions on how to create a short, watch here.

The Jugnu Challenge starts today, Tuesday, October 26 at 7 PM IST through Sunday, November 07 at 11.59 PM IST. During this time, anyone with access to Shorts can participate in the challenge.

We hope to see your unique spin on Badshah’s ‘Jugnu’ moves on YouTube Shorts and don’t forget to use hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #Shorts!

*Posting a Short does not guarantee selection. Your Short will not be used in this manner without your permission*

Posted by Pawan Agarwal, Director - Music Partnerships (India & South Asia), YouTube

Evolving our business model to address developer needs

2021-10-21T21:39:00.001+05:30

When we started Android and Google Play more than a decade ago, we made a bet that a free and open mobile ecosystem could compete with the proprietary walled gardens that dominated the industry. It wasn’t yet clear what kinds of businesses would move to mobile or what apps would be successful. To keep things simple, we went with an easy-to-understand business model: The vast majority of developers could distribute their apps on Google Play for free (currently 97% do so at no charge). For the developers who offered a paid app or sold in-app digital goods (currently just 3% of developers), the flat service fee was 30%. This model helped apps to become one of the fastest-growing software segments. And instead of charging licensing fees for our OS, our service fee allowed us to continually invest in Android and Play while making them available for free to device makers all over the world.

The creativity and innovation from developers around the world spurred amazing new app experiences we could have never imagined when we first introduced Android. As the ecosystem evolved, a wider range of business models emerged to support these different types of apps. We've made important changes along the way, including moving beyond a “one size fits all” service fee model to ensure all types of businesses can be successful. Instead of a single service fee, we now have multiple programs designed to support and encourage our diverse app ecosystem.

The result is that 99% of developers qualify for a service fee of 15% or less. And after learning from and listening to developers across many industries and regions, including developers like Anghami, AWA, Bumble, Calm, Duolingo, KADOKAWA, KKBOX, PicsArt, and Smule, we're announcing additional changes to further support our ecosystem of partners and help them build sustainable businesses, and ensure Play continues to lead in the mobile app ecosystem.

Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

Digital subscriptions have become one of the fastest growing models for developers but we know that subscription businesses face specific challenges in customer acquisition and retention. We’ve worked with our partners in dating, fitness, education and other sectors to understand the nuances of their businesses. Our current service fee drops from 30% to 15% after 12 months of a recurring subscription. But we’ve heard that customer churn makes it challenging for subscription businesses to benefit from that reduced rate. So, we’re simplifying things to ensure they can.

To help support the specific needs of developers offering subscriptions, starting on January 1, 2022, we're decreasing the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play from 30% to 15%, starting from day one.

For developers offering subscriptions, this means that first-year subscription fees will be cut in half. We’ve already gotten positive feedback from our developer partners on this change:

“Our partnership with Google has been a powerful one for our business, helping us to scale and ultimately playing a key role in advancing our mission to empower women globally. The pricing change they’ve announced will allow us to better invest in our products and further empower users to confidently connect online.”

– Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO, Bumble Inc.

"Just as every person learns in different ways, every developer is different as well. We're excited to see Google continuing to collaborate with the ecosystem to find models that work for both the developer and platform. This reduction in subscription fees will help Duolingo accelerate our mission of universally available language learning."

- Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo.

Going further with cross platform experiences

While apps remain incredibly important for mobile phones, great services must now also span TVs, cars, watches, tablets and more. And we recognize that developers need to invest in building for those platforms now more than ever.

Earlier this year we launched the Play Media Experience program to encourage video, audio and book developers alike to help grow the Android platform by building amazing cross-device experiences. This helped developers invest in these multi-screen experiences with a service fee as low as 15%.

Today, we’re also making changes to the service fee in the Media Experience program, to better accommodate differences in these categories. Ebooks and on-demand music streaming services, where content costs account for the majority of sales, will now be eligible for a service fee as low as 10%. The new rates recognize industry economics of media content verticals and make Google Play work better for developers and the communities of artists, musicians and authors they represent. You can go here for more information.

We will continue to engage with developers to understand their challenges and opportunities — and how we can best support them in building sustainable businesses. It’s a theme that will be front and center at the Android Developer Summit on October 27-28, where you’ll hear more about our latest tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and technologies designed to help developers be more productive and create better apps.

If you’re looking for more information about Google Play and its service fees, we've answered some common questions here.

Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President, Product Management

Fostering an open and inclusive community with our creators

2021-10-12T13:00:00.020+05:30

For millions of Indians, YouTube is woven into the fabric of everyday life, whether it is to laugh, learn, or be inspired by transformative stories. YouTube is a vibrant destination for people to find inspiring content fuelled by the extraordinary diversity that our creators represent across geographies, demographics, identities and cultures. This diversity is our superpower and we not only want to promote it but supercharge it.

As we continue to foster and grow our ecosystem, we remain cognizant of and committed to the responsibility that comes with being a platform that values openness. Our community guidelines offer guardrails for our creators for content on YouTube. And, we are extending our efforts with the launch of #CreateWithCare, our latest initiative in India that partners with leading creators to preserve and promote a diverse, inclusive community on YouTube that can drive responsible growth. #CreateWithCare aligns with our mission to empower creators from all backgrounds, communities, languages, and genders, including many that may be under-represented, to find their voice, an audience and cultivate a sense of belonging.

Technical Guruji, Kabita's Kitchen, Prajakta Koli, Madan Gowri, My Village Show, Bhadipa, Kushiyagi Ramya, Vishal Langthasa, Wonder Munna, Salu Kitchen among 30 leading creators across 8 languages to take the #CreateWithCare pledge

Today, at our Creator Camp event, a platform that serves as a learning forum for emerging creators to gain from the community of creators and YouTube product experts, we showcased the #CreateWithCare Pledge. The pledge unites popular creators from all corners of India in their endeavor to create content more thoughtfully by educating themselves about different cultures and histories, being respectful of diverse points of views and facilitating meaningful, open engagements among their communities. With #CreateWithCare, we want to help and inspire all our creators, even those who may just be starting their journey on YouTube, to approach content creation with a lens of responsibility.

Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission of Women in India, took to the stage to reiterate the transformative role technology plays in empowering women by enhancing access to learning and employment opportunities, extending her encouragement to our creator community to create content responsibly and inclusively. Creators also had the opportunity to learn from V R Ferose, founder of India Inclusion Foundation, as he enumerated a few ways in which creators could be more empathetic in representing persons with disabilities in their content.

Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships, Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, and V R Ferose, Founder - India Inclusion Foundation speak at Creator Camp

We are incredibly proud of our growing cohort of creators like Ranveer Allahbadia, who today has his own talent management and brand marketing agency, or My Village Show, whose unique take on village comedy birthed a whole new genre on YouTube, who have used their distinctive, authentic voices to build not only engaged communities but also successful business ventures. And, we will continue to safeguard our community of viewers and creators alike, by making everyone feel welcome and heard on our platform.

Our #CreateWithCare campaign will continue to bring together prolific creators to create useful resources and discuss how to be respectful of diversity as they create content that has the power to impact lives. Stay tuned to YouTube Creators India for more on #CreateWithCare.

Posted by Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships

Updating our ads and monetization policies on climate change

2021-10-08T00:35:00.001+05:30

Working closely with outside experts, we regularly review and update our ads and monetization policies to help ensure a brand-safe environment for our advertising partners and to better protect users from unreliable claims, such as fake medical cures or anti-vaccine advocacy.

Addressing climate change denial

In recent years, we've heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change. Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.

That’s why today, we’re announcing a new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators that will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.

When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim. We will also continue to allow ads and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research and more.

In creating this policy and its parameters, we’ve consulted authoritative sources on the topic of climate science, including experts who have contributed to United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports. As is the case for many of our policies, we’ll use a combination of automated tools and human review to enforce this policy against violating publisher content, Google-served ads, and YouTube videos that are monetizing via YouTube’s Partner Program. We’ll begin enforcing this policy next month.

This new policy not only will help us strengthen the integrity of our advertising ecosystem, but also it aligns strongly with the work we’ve done as a company over the past two decades to promote sustainability and confront climate change head-on.

Posted by The Google Ads team

Making sign-in safer and more convenient

2021-10-05T18:31:00.000+05:30

For most of us, passwords are the first line of defense for our digital lives. However, managing a set of strong passwords isn’t always convenient, which leads many people to look for shortcuts (i.e. dog’s name + birthday) or to neglect password best practices altogether, which opens them up to online risks. At Google, we protect our users with products that are secure by default – it’s how we keep more people safe online than anyone else in the world.

As we celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’d like to share all the ways we are making your sign-in safer:

Making password sign-in seamless and safe

Everyday, Google checks the security of 1 billion passwords to protect your accounts from being hacked. Google’s Password Manager, built directly into Chrome, Android and the Google App, uses the latest security technology to keep your passwords safe across all the sites and apps you use. It makes it easier to create and use strong and unique passwords on all your devices, without the need to remember or repeat each one.

On iOS you can select Chrome to autofill saved passwords in other apps, too. That means your sign-in experience goes from remembering and typing in a password on each individual site to literally one tap. And soon, you will be able to take advantage of Chrome’s strong password generation feature for any iOS app, similar to how Autofill with Google works on Android today.

We're also rolling out a feature in the Google app that allows you to access all of the passwords you've saved in Google Password Manager right from the Google app menu. These enhancements are designed to make your password experience easier and safer—not just on Google, but across the web.

Getting people enrolled in 2SV

In addition to passwords, we know that having a second form of authentication dramatically decreases an attacker’s chance of gaining access to an account. For years, Google has been at the forefront of innovation in two-step verification (2SV), one of the most reliable ways to prevent unauthorized access to accounts and networks. 2SV is strongest when it combines both "something you know" (like a password) and "something you have" (like your phone or a security key).

2SV has been core to Google’s own security practices and today we make it seamless for our users with a Google prompt, which requires a simple tap on your mobile device to prove it’s really you trying to sign in. And because we know the best way to keep our users safe is to turn on our security protections by default, we have started to automatically configure our users’ accounts into a more secure state. By the end of 2021, we plan to auto-enroll an additional 150 million Google users in 2SV and require 2 million YouTube creators to turn it on.

We also recognize that today’s 2SV options aren’t suitable for everyone, so we are working on technologies that provide a convenient, secure authentication experience and reduce the reliance on passwords in the long-term. Right now we are auto-enrolling Google accounts that have the proper backup mechanisms in place to make a seamless transition to 2SV. To make sure your account has the right settings in place, take our quick Security Checkup.

Building security keys into devices

As part of our security work, we led the invention of security keys — another form of authentication that requires you to tap your key during suspicious sign-in attempts. We know security keys provide the highest degree of sign-in security possible, that’s why we've partnered with organizations to provide free security keys to over 10,000 high risk users this year.

To make security keys more accessible, we built the capability right into Android phones and our Google Smart Lock app on Apple devices. Today, over two billion devices around the world automatically support the strongest, most convenient 2SV technology available.

Additional sign-in enhancements

We recently launched One Tap and a new family of Identity APIs called Google Identity Services, which uses secure tokens, rather than passwords, to sign users into partner websites and apps, like Reddit and Pinterest. With the new Google Identity Services, we've combined Google's advanced security with easy sign in to deliver a convenient experience that also keeps users safe. These new services represent the future of authentication and protect against vulnerabilities like click-jacking, pixel tracking, and other web and app-based threats.

Ultimately, we want all of our users to have an easy, seamless sign-in experience that includes the best security protections across all of their devices and accounts. To learn more about all the ways we’re making every day safer with Google visit our Safety Center.

Posted by Guemmy Kim, Director, Account Security and Safety and AbdelKarim Mardini, Group Product Manager, Chrome

Helping digital newsrooms accelerate their ad revenues

2021-10-05T12:35:00.000+05:30

The last two years have been challenging across multiple dimensions for people and businesses around the world. There has never been a greater need for authoritative, timely journalism, yet many news organisations are confronting challenges as the world reorients.

Through this year, we have announced several initiatives to address the needs of startup news businesses, as well as large scale news publishers in this altered landscape.

Today we are pleased to launch the Google News Initiative Advertising Lab to support small and medium sized news publishers producing original news for local and regional communities in India. The program, aimed at newsrooms employing up to 100 members, will focus on technical and product training of teams, as well as technical implementation to help grow the organization’s digital ad revenues.

The program will select up to 800 small to medium news publishers and work closely with a select subset to guide them through the optimization / setup of their content management systems, websites and ad setups.

This program is the latest in a host of GNI programs working directly with news organizations of all sizes on developing new products, programs and partnerships to help news publishers grow their businesses.

"The insights and business direction provided through the interactive sessions as part of the Google News Initiative were eye opening for the team. We are excited and thankful that a similar scaled program is being launched to further help us keep pace with the changes in the publishing landscape." - Harisha Bhat, Chief Technology Officer, Udayavani, Manipal Media Network Ltd.

Detailed eligibility criteria and applications can be accessed at the GNI Advertising Lab program website. Applications are open starting today until 5 November 2021.

Posted by Shilpa Jhunjhunwala, Head of India News Partnerships & APAC News Programs

Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn 2021

2021-09-30T16:00:00.001+05:30

This past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has revamped the face of the education system in our country. Teacher-student interaction, pedagogy, examinations, assessments and extra curricular activities have seen many changes since March 2020. While opportunities have been lost, many new ones have also been created.

Today we are launching the eighth edition of the Code to Learn competition as an opportunity to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.

Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India are invited to register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML. They can build games, animations, Android apps and their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!

The National Education Policy 2020 has also recommended introducing coding and computational thinking at a young age to allow early exposure to technology and create new pathways for our students. The Code to Learn competition provides an interactive platform for students to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way, we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.

The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects until 25 October 2021. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.

The contest calls for projects on Scratch or App Inventor from students of classes 5-10, and projects on Google Cloud AutoML from students of classes 9-12. We have a special AI track for class 9-12 students where they can use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.

The Code to Learn competition in 2020 witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw interesting entries of numerous games to fight against the coronavirus, social evils, zombies and applications to promote mental health and track fitness. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students sought to detect the right way of wearing a mask, promote tiger conservation and decode sign languages, among various other such projects.

Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc is a renowned research-oriented university based in Bangalore, pioneering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering.

We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.

Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Senior Program Manager

How AI is making information more useful

2021-09-29T23:31:00.000+05:30

Today, there’s more information accessible at people’s fingertips than at any point in human history. And advances in artificial intelligence will radically transform the way we use that information, with the ability to uncover new insights that can help us both in our daily lives and in the ways we are able to tackle complex global challenges.

At our Search On livestream event today, we shared how we’re bringing the latest in AI to Google’s products, giving people new ways to search and explore information in more natural and intuitive ways.

Making multimodal search possible with MUM

Earlier this year at Google I/O, we announced we’ve reached a critical milestone for understanding information with Multitask Unified Model, or MUM for short.

We’ve been experimenting with using MUM’s capabilities to make our products more helpful and enable entirely new ways to search. Today, we’re sharing an early look at what will be possible with MUM.

In the coming months, we’ll introduce a new way to search visually, with the ability to ask questions about what you see. Here are a couple of examples of what will be possible with MUM.

With this new capability, you can tap on the Lens icon when you’re looking at a picture of a shirt, and ask Google to find you the same pattern — but on another article of clothing, like socks. This helps when you’re looking for something that might be difficult to describe accurately with words alone. You could type “white floral Victorian socks,” but you might not find the exact pattern you’re looking for. By combining images and text into a single query, we’re making it easier to search visually and express your questions in more natural ways.

Some questions are even trickier: Your bike has a broken thingamajig, and you need some guidance on how to fix it. Instead of poring over catalogs of parts and then looking for a tutorial, the point-and-ask mode of searching will make it easier to find the exact moment in a video that can help.

Helping you explore with a redesigned Search page

We’re also announcing how we’re applying AI advances like MUM to redesign Google Search. These new features are the latest steps we’re taking to make searching more natural and intuitive.

First, we’re making it easier to explore and understand new topics with “Things to know.” Let’s say you want to decorate your apartment, and you’re interested in learning more about creating acrylic paintings.

If you search for “acrylic painting,” Google understands how people typically explore this topic, and shows the aspects people are likely to look at first. For example, we can identify more than 350 topics related to acrylic painting, and help you find the right path to take.

We’ll be launching this feature in the coming months. In the future, MUM will unlock deeper insights you might not have known to search for — like “how to make acrylic paintings with household items” — and connect you with content on the web that you wouldn’t have otherwise found.

Second, to help you further explore ideas, we’re making it easy to zoom in and out of a topic with new features to refine and broaden searches.

In this case, you can learn more about specific techniques, like puddle pouring, or art classes you can take. You can also broaden your search to see other related topics, like other painting methods and famous painters. These features will launch in the coming months.

Third, we’re making it easier to find visual inspiration with a newly designed, browsable results page. If puddle pouring caught your eye, just search for “pour painting ideas" to see a visually rich page full of ideas from across the web, with articles, images, videos and more that you can easily scroll through.

This new visual results page is designed for searches that are looking for inspiration, like “Halloween decorating ideas” or “indoor vertical garden ideas,” and you can try it today.

Get more from videos

We already use advanced AI systems to identify key moments in videos, like the winning shot in a basketball game, or steps in a recipe. Today, we’re taking this a step further, introducing a new experience that identifies related topics in a video, with links to easily dig deeper and learn more.

Using MUM, we can even show related topics that aren’t explicitly mentioned in the video, based on our advanced understanding of information in the video. In this example, while the video doesn’t say the words “macaroni penguin’s life story,” our systems understand that topics contained in the video relate to this topic, like how macaroni penguins find their family members and navigate predators. The first version of this feature will roll out in the coming weeks, and we’ll add more visual enhancements in the coming months.

Across all these MUM experiences, we look forward to helping people discover more web pages, videos, images and ideas that they may not have come across or otherwise searched for.

A more helpful Google

The updates we’re announcing today don’t end with MUM, though. We’re also making it easier to shop from the widest range of merchants, big and small, no matter what you’re looking for. And we’re helping people better evaluate the credibility of information they find online. Plus, for the moments that matter most, we’re finding new ways to help people get access to information and insights.

All this work not only helps people around the world, but creators, publishers and businesses as well. Every day, we send visitors to well over 100 million different websites, and every month, Google connects people with more than 120 million businesses that don't have websites, by enabling phone calls, driving directions and local foot traffic.

As we continue to build more useful products and push the boundaries of what it means to search, we look forward to helping people find the answers they’re looking for, and inspiring more questions along the way.

Posted by Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President

Managing harmful vaccine content on YouTube

2021-09-29T18:47:00.001+05:30

Crafting policy around medical misinformation comes charged with inherent challenges and tradeoffs. Scientific understanding evolves as new research emerges, and firsthand, personal experience regularly plays a powerful role in online discourse. Vaccines in particular have been a source of fierce debate over the years, despite consistent guidance from health authorities about their effectiveness. Today, we're expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO.

Our Community Guidelines already prohibit certain types of medical misinformation. We've long removed content that promotes harmful remedies, such as saying drinking turpentine can cure diseases. At the onset of COVID-19, we built on these policies when the pandemic hit, and worked with experts to develop 10 new policies around COVID-19 and medical misinformation. Since last year, we’ve removed over 130,000 videos for violating our COVID-19 vaccine policies.

Throughout this work, we learned important lessons about how to design and enforce nuanced medical misinformation policies at scale. Working closely with health authorities, we looked to balance our commitment to an open platform with the need to remove egregious harmful content. We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines.

Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed. This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them. Our policies not only cover specific routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to general statements about vaccines.

As with our COVID guidelines, we consulted with local and international health organizations and experts in developing these policies. For example, our new guidance on vaccine side effects maps to public vaccine resources provided by health authorities and backed by medical consensus. These policy changes will go into effect today, and as with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement.

There are important exceptions to our new guidelines. Given the importance of public discussion and debate to the scientific process, we will continue to allow content about vaccine policies, new vaccine trials, and historical vaccine successes or failures on YouTube. Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, so long as the video doesn't violate other Community Guidelines, or the channel doesn't show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy.

All of this complements our ongoing work to raise up authoritative health information on our platform and connect people with credible, quality health content and sources.

Today’s policy update is an important step to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we’ll continue to invest across the board in the policies and products that bring high quality information to our viewers and the entire YouTube community.

Posted by The YouTube Team

Inviting applications for Google for Startups Accelerator India Class 6

2021-09-28T15:43:00.000+05:30

Indian Startups continue to push the bar on taking on complex challenges and building innovative solutions to drive real life impact. And we at Google see this as a real privilege to partner with them in this journey and help them to succeed at scale. We do this under our flagship program Google for Startups Accelerator (GFSA) India. In August, we had announced our 5th class with 16 Seed to Series B startups from 8 different cities across India covering verticals like HealthTech, FinTech, Content with 43% representation by women founders. The cohort’s program is now underway and the startups are busy addressing their technical, product and business challenges through the program, with our mentors and Google teams in active engagement with the founders and their teams.

As the 16 startups in class 5 continue their journey with the program, we are excited to now invite applications for Class 6 of Google for Startups Accelerator India.

Under the program, we continue to focus on supporting startups that are innovating to solve meaningful problems focused on India and the world. As we grow the program with Class 6, we are focusing on supporting solutions that drive scalable impact, scale globally and are built on innovative approaches using AI/ML and data in healthcare, education, finance, enterprise & other spaces such as agritech, media & entertainment, gaming.

For the 6th batch, our Applications are open until 20 October 2021, and we will select 15-20 startups that are building India-first products for the world to join. The Accelerator will continue to run as a fully digital program through the COVID season.

Startups that meet the following criteria are eligible to apply:

AI/ML or data startups in but not limited to healthcare, education, finance, media & entertainment, gaming and enterprise
SaaS startups
Startups based in India
Preferably in the Seed to Series A/B stages

We will host a weekly virtual open forum every Friday, 4 to 5 PM, during the application phase. Startups interested to know more about the Accelerator program can join to get their questions answered. Register here to get invited to one of the sessions.

What can shortlisted Startups expect from the program:

The selected startups will receive mentorship and support around AI/ML, Cloud, UX, Android, Web, Product Strategy and Growth. In addition to mentorship and technical project support, the accelerator provides deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition, and founders’ leadership development.

The program also offers access to a global network of startups and mentors/experts. As part of this program, founders outline the top challenges their startups are facing and then match them with relevant experts from Google and the industry to solve those challenges.

We are committed to bring the best of Google to Indian startups and till date we have supported 96 startups helping them to shape their product/company and partnering them in their journey to build very large and successful companies. And we can’t wait to start the next batch of startups.

Posted by Farish CV, Program Manager, Google for Startups Accelerator, India

Introducing an accelerator program for digital news startups, and support for more Indian languages in Google News Showcase

2021-09-09T10:01:00.002+05:30

Access to trustworthy information is vital for all components of a thriving democracy. Through the years, we have kept up consistent efforts to help with continued access to quality journalism, contributing to the sustainability of news organizations, supporting emerging news business models and enabling newsrooms to engage their readers in new ways through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Today we’re building on this commitment with a new Google News Initiative (GNI) Startups Lab program for aspiring news entrepreneurs from all across India.

Google News Initiative (GNI) Startups Lab India - applications open

Applications open today for GNI Startups Lab -- a four-month program that seeks to help independent local or single-subject journalism organizations find a pathway to financial and operational sustainability through intensive coaching, skills training and other support.

Created in partnership with the global innovation lab Echos and DIGIPUB News India Foundation, the GNI Startups Lab India program will support high-quality reporting for local and underserved communities. We welcome applications from news startups publishing in all Indian languages.

The 16-week program is tailored to the needs of startup newsrooms in India and participants will benefit from Echos' experience in supporting media startups and from DIGIPUB's network and community with workshops and coaching.

"Digipub is excited to partner with Google News Initiative Startups Lab to make the digital media ecosystem robust and sustainable. Digital news media is the future of news in India and collaborations like these will ensure that new entrants receive the support they deserve," Dhanya Rajendran, Chairperson of Digipub News India Foundation commented.

Applications are open until 18 October 2021 and 10 independent digital news publishers will be selected to participate in the first cohort in India. To learn more and apply, click here.

Supporting more Indian languages with Google News Showcase

In May, we announced the expansion of Google News Showcase, our online experience and licensing program to support news organizations and readers, to India. Today, we are pleased to add support for four new languages - Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu - in addition to English and Hindi in dedicated News Showcase panels in Google News and on Discover, to help more readers get access to quality news in their own languages. With the addition of these new languages and new partners today, we now have onboarded more than 50 partners representing more than 70 publications.

We continue to work with publishers of all kinds -- from digital natives to regional media in India to help them to engage with readers and deliver trusted information across our platforms.

We are delighted to partner with the Indian news industry and support new digital formats and innovations to build a sustainable, independent and diverse news ecosystem.

Posted by Kate Beddoe, Director of News Partnerships, Google Asia Pacific

Empowering more women entrepreneurs in India

2021-09-06T15:09:00.001+05:30

Despite the many strides in diversity and inclusion efforts in different industries in India and the world, we remain at some distance from true and proportionate representation of women in the workforce - be it in leadership, entrepreneurship or otherwise.

This is a gap that we, at Google, are committed to closing through various efforts within Google and beyond, across all the communities we support. Our ongoing efforts to support women entrepreneurs are one of these.

2020 has brought back a sharp focus on health-tech and two founders selected from India for Women Founders Academy - Zealth-AI’s Monika Mehta and BrainSightAI’s Laina Emmanuel - are both tackling different challenges within healthcare.

The Women Founders Academy, which is a twelve week program, offers the founders training to sharpen their leadership skills, build strong teams and address their unique growth needs. They will take part in workshops, connect with a community of Google advisors, venture capitalists and business executives and receive mentoring from dedicated subject matter experts. This year’s Women Founders come from 5 countries in Asia Pacific – India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

Getting to know the Indian women founders in the latest cohort:

In March 2019, Monika lost a close family member to an illness. The tragedy made her realize that our healthcare system relies heavily on patients being able to appreciate the severity of symptoms and taking swift action when necessary. Monika started Zealth-AI in July 2020 with the goal of creating a digital hospital-at-home solution that ensures timely interventions and better outcomes.

In another part of the country, Laina’s BrainSightAI is building a neuroinformatics platform that uses technology to help answer questions about neuro-oncological and neuro-psychiatric disorders.

Laina says she has always been driven by complicated problems, conceptual thinking and like Monika, the dream of making a real impact. The work on operating system development and international health issues such as reducing maternal mortality has been a great way to combine Laina’s passions. She’s committed to continuing her hard work to make BrainSightAI a sustainable vehicle for change for more people.

Along with Laina, Monika is inspired by the opportunity to connect with fellow women entrepreneurs and learning from a diverse pool of peers, mentors and experts through the Women Founders Academy program.

Posted by Team Google for Startups, India

Partnering with the financial ecosystem with Google Pay

2021-09-03T10:00:00.002+05:30

In every geography where Google Pay is present, our stance is consistently one of partnering with the existing financial services and banking systems to help scale and enable frictionless delivery of financial products and services and contribute to the goal of financial inclusion.

This vision has been consistent since our launch in India and several of our offerings are built on top of NPCI’s pioneering UPI payment network and infrastructure, which has grown over 190X in the last 4 years, to processing over INR 6 trillion in value today.

At its core, Google Pay is a simple and secure mobile app for sending and receiving money, providing the functionality of a seamless payment experience, which is critical for consumers and merchants. Over the years, we have invested in efforts to bring the convenience of UPI to both online and offline merchants.

Furthering that objective, in 2019, we had announced the launch of the Spot Platform on Google Pay, a surface for merchants of all types - offline or digital native, small or large, across use cases - to find payment-ready users.

With more and more users embracing Google Pay in India, our Spot platform works as an additional discovery channel for many businesses to build and offer innovative new experiences to users to drive adoption of their services. The use cases span across ticket purchase, food ordering, paying for essential services like utility bills, shopping and getting access to various financial products.

Today we have close to 400 merchant Spots on Google Pay, and in this journey, we have seen that financial product offerings perform especially well, with offerings from Spot experiences delivered by financial services players like CashE, Groww, 5paisa, Zest Money etc. seeing significant growth and engagement from users on Google Pay. This engagement underscores that payments platforms are a great surface to deliver financial services to users across the country.

Going a bit deeper into the Spot Platform, many of these Spot experiences especially in the financial products / service categories - be it insurance, wealth management, credit or other financial services - are regulated industries and each merchant is required to be duly authorised to provide those services before we onboard them on to the platform. As Google Pay, our role is firmly circumscribed to providing these merchants a surface where Google Pay users can discover and gain from these offerings - be it credit products, insurance or any others.

There have been a few instances where these offerings have been reported as ‘Google Pay’s offerings’ which fuels misinterpretation. To be clear, we have always looked at our role firmly as a partner to the existing financial ecosystem, that brings unique skill sets and offerings to drive further adoption of digital payments in the country.

The success of UPI and digital payments in India have opened many new opportunities for the financial services industry to partner deeply with fin-tech players in the country, and we are encouraged by the progressive and tech-positive approach of the regulators to drive greater financial inclusion. We are committed to play our role by using technology as a means to level social inequalities and contribute to this vision operating within the purview of India’s legal and regulatory frameworks.

Posted by Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head, Payments and NBU, Google APAC

Find detailed information on vaccination availability near you

2021-09-01T11:26:00.000+05:30

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a priority within our communities, vaccines remain one of our biggest protections. Nationwide vaccination drives are in full swing, and as more people look to get vaccinated, their requirements for information continue to evolve: finding vaccine availability by location, specific information about vaccination services offered, and details on appointment availability are increasingly important to know.

In March 2021, we started showing COVID-19 vaccination centers on Google, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Starting this week, for over 13,000 locations across the country, people will be able to get more helpful information about vaccine availability and appointments -- powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs. This includes information such as:

Availability of appointment slots at each center
Vaccines and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2)
Expectations for pricing (Paid or Free)
Link to the CoWIN website for booking

Across Google Search, Maps, and Google Assistant, now find more detailed information on vaccination availability, including vaccines and doses available, appointments and more

The above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centers near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and Google Assistant. In addition to English, users can also search in eight Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi. We will continue to partner closely with the CoWIN team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centers across India.

As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms.

Posted by Hema Budaraju, Director, Google Search

Raising our India commitment to build a safer internet for everyone

2021-08-25T14:15:00.007+05:30

At Google, safety is core to everything we do. We design our products to ensure that they are secure by default and private by design, and you’re in control of your information. We are privileged that hundreds of millions of Indians place their trust in Google products.

In India, we have been working towards making the internet helpful for over a billion people through a deeper understanding of our users’ needs under our Next Billion Users initiative, and launching many India-first features and products. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the internet's role in our everyday lives has become all the more central. With more and more Indians turning to the internet for their day-to-day needs, we recognise our responsibility to ensure that they’re protected from an evolving range of online risks — from phishing to financial fraud to misinformation. We also know that new users in particular are vulnerable to threats from bad actors.

Today, we are underlining our commitment to protect users against this multidimensional challenge — and make the internet safer for everyone.

Ramping up our trust & safety efforts in India

To protect our users and products at the scale at which we operate, everyday 24x7, we continuously invest in both people and technology to make the internet safer. With over 20,000 people spread across the world, our Trust and Safety teams are dedicated to identifying, fighting, and preventing online harms. This includes everything from researching emerging abuse trends, to developing policies and standards that make clear what is acceptable on our platforms, to building the technology that enables enforcement of those policies at scale, including compliance with local laws and regulations in every country we operate in. Just in the last year, we’ve invested over $1 billion on our content moderation systems and processes, and we continue to invest in this area.

In India, we have significantly increased the resources dedicated to these teams, adding product policy analysts, security specialists, and user trust experts, and expanded our efforts to provide coverage in more than 10 vernacular Indian languages, enabling our central teams to benefit from the local nuance and inputs. This increased focus will help us to tackle misinformation, fraud, threats to child safety, violent extremism, phishing attacks, and malware, among other abuse areas.

A collaborative approach for a safer internet

We recognise that the work of building a safer internet needs the leadership of the larger internet industry that is driving India’s digital economy. These challenges cannot be overcome by one or two players alone, and there is a need to step up our collective efforts as an industry. We are committed to sharing our tools and the institutional knowledge and capabilities we’ve developed over the years to contribute to this joint responsibility. We will be working with leading industry organisations to help train developers and startups in these capabilities, build communal solutions to shared safety challenges, and innovate on open-source tools so we can better protect Indians online.

Investing in user awareness and education in Indian languages

We also know that safety information helps people understand and avoid online harm. The Google Safety Centre serves as a single destination dedicated to educating and empowering our users on the importance of digital safety. As many people in India use the internet in their regional language, we are launching the new and updated Google Safety Centre in eight languages starting with Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu, with three more Indian languages set to roll out by the end of the year.

On this platform, users can discover helpful resources and easy tips, and identify the digital habits that are right for them and their families, all in the language of their choice. By going to the ‘My Activity’ hub via the Safety Centre or directly through their account, users can review, control, or delete the activity saved to their Google accounts. This section received more than 1 billion visits by Indian users in the first half of 2021 alone, and we hope this refreshed Safety Center will help millions more.

As part of this effort, we’ve also launched a user education campaign in multiple languages, to bring attention to common threats like phishing, malware, and fraud.

Raising our commitment to ensure children’s safety online

While our policies don’t allow kids under 13 to create a standard Google account, we’ve worked hard to design enriching product experiences for them — as well as for older teens and their families. We are aware that kids and teens are spending more time online, and parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightfully concerned about how to keep them safe. We share these concerns and we have announced a series of new policies in response.

We are also committed to matching these efforts with digital safety resources for parents and children. So starting today, we are excited to launch our global Be Internet Awesome program in India, a resource that is designed and crafted by digital safety experts to help children, families, and educators learn about staying safe online. Available in English and Hindi first, then soon in other Indian languages, Be Internet Awesome is a great resource for kids, parents, and teachers to learn about safe and healthy internet habits.

It includes a highly visual, interactive experience called ‘Interland’, where children can learn the fundamentals of online safety and participate in a series of fun, challenging games. They’ll learn how to safeguard valuable information, one-up cyber bullies, and spot what’s real and what’s fake. We’re also keen for children to explore Be Internet Awesome through avenues they’re already familiar with, and so we are delighted to announce our partnership with popular Indian comic book publishers, Amar Chitra Katha, who will help kids discover these critical internet safety lessons through their favourite characters, in eight Indian languages.

A safer and trusted app experience for our users

Affordable smartphones can unlock online opportunities for millions more Indians. But these devices have to be underpinned by a bedrock of privacy, security, and transparency. We have stepped up our efforts to deliver a privacy-first experience with Android 12 with a new privacy dashboard that gives people a clear timeline view of apps that have accessed their location, microphone, and camera in the last 24 hours — so they can better understand and control what data apps use.

At the same time, we’re taking steps to identify and respond to concerns around specific app categories more quickly. For example, we recently announced clarifications around the policies on personal loan apps, including new requirements that will help safeguard users, while enabling legitimate developers to operate and flourish. And we have significantly expanded our Google Play support teams in India, enabling us to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of our partners and users — including around online safety. The bottom line is this: when we solve for our users, we also solve for our developers.

We have no doubt that what we do in India will also shape the future of a Safer Internet for everyone.

Building a safer internet for everyone is not one more thing to do, it is the one thing to do — together.

Posted by Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager & Vice President, Google India, and Kristie Canegallo, Vice President, Trust & Safety, Google

Pixel Buds A-Series: Rich sound with an iconic design

2021-08-18T10:31:00.002+05:30

When we first introduced our truly wireless Pixel Buds, we aimed to pack plenty of functionality into a surprisingly small product. Now, we’re making that same premium sound quality, along with hands-free help from Google Assistant and real-time translation.

Introducing Pixel Buds A-Series: rich sound, clear calls and Google helpfulness, all in a low-profile design, for ₹ 9,999.

A premium audio experience

Our research shows that most people describe great sound as full, clear and natural. This is what guides our audio tuning process and shows up in other devices, like Nest Audio. And Pixel Buds A-Series are no exception. Custom-designed 12 mm dynamic speaker drivers deliver full, clear and natural sound, with the option for even more power in those low tones with Bass Boost.

To experience the full range of the speaker’s capabilities, especially in the low frequencies, a good seal is essential. We’ve scanned thousands of ears to make Pixel Buds A-Series fit securely with a gentle seal. In order to keep the fit comfortable over time, a spatial vent reduces in-ear pressure.

Each earbud also connects to the main device playing audio, and has strong individual transmission power, to keep your sound clear and uninterrupted.

The stabilizer arc ensures a gentle, but secure fit while spatial vents prevent that plugged ear feeling.

Sound quality can also be affected by your environment. The new Pixel Buds A-Series come with Adaptive Sound, which increases or decreases the volume based on your surroundings. This comes in handy when you're moving from the quiet of your home to somewhere noisy like a city street, or while jogging past a loud construction site.

And your calls will have great sound, too. To make sure your calls are as clear as they can be, Pixel Buds A-Series use beamforming mics to focus on your voice and reduce outside noise, making your calls crystal clear (though of course, overall call quality depends on signal strength, environment, network, and other factors). Once your call is over, quickly get back to your music with a simple “Ok Google, play my music.”

Stylish and hardworking

For Pixel Buds A-Series, we wanted to bring back the iconic Clearly White, but added a twist with new gray undertones. We use nature for inspiration in our colors all the time, and our design team was looking to create soothing tones that evoke a sense of comfort and relaxation.

Pixel Buds’ design is inspired by the idea that great things can come in small packages: Pixel Buds A-Series include up to five hours of listening time on a single charge or up to 24 hours using the charging case. And with the ability to get a quick charge — about 15 minutes in the case gives you up to three hours of listening time — you can keep listening anywhere.1

They’re comfortable enough for those long listening sessions, and don’t worry if some of that time is devoted to a sweaty workout or a run in the rain: The earbuds are also sweat and water-resistant.2

Hands-free access to the best of Google

Google Assistant is built right into the Pixel Buds A-Series. You can get quick hands-free help to check the weather, get an answer, change the volume, or have notifications read to you with a simple “Ok Google.”

You can do more than just ask questions, though — for example, you can get real-time translation in more than 40 languages (including Bengali, Hindi, and Tamil) right in your ear while using a Pixel or Android 6.0+ phone. Say “Ok Google, help me speak French” to start a conversation. For more information, including available languages and minimum requirements, visit g.co/pixelbuds/help.

Pixel Buds A-Series work with any phone running bluetooth as standard wireless earbuds, delivering a quality listening experience. Features like the Google Assistant, Fast Pair, Find my Device, Adaptive Sound, and more work on all Pixel and Android devices running Android 6.0+.

Pixel Buds A-Series will be available for purchase on 25th August 2021 at Flipkart, Reliance Digital, and Tata Cliq, and will be coming to more retail outlets subsequently.

Posted by Austine Chang, Product Manager

1. All listening times are approximate and were measured using music playback with pre-production hardware and software, with fully charged Pixel Buds A-Series and case, and other features disabled. Case is used to recharge Pixel Buds A-Series when their batteries are depleted. Charging times are approximate. Use of other features will decrease battery life. Battery life depends on device, features enabled, usage, environment and many other factors. Actual battery life may be lower.

2. Pixel Buds A-Series (earbuds only) have a water protection rating of IPx4 under IEC standard 60529. Water resistance is not a permanent condition and may be compromised by normal wear and tear, repair, disassembly, or damage.

Introducing Class 5 of the Google for Startups Accelerator India

2021-08-17T12:07:00.000+05:30

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought forth a new set of challenges amid the ‘new normal’, across healthcare, digital payments, mental health as well as core pillars of the economy like agriculture. The pandemic has also accelerated digital adoption across sectors and there is immense opportunity for tech enabled startups.

Our charter remains to bring the best of Google to India’s thriving startup ecosystem, leverage our learnings across the globe to help startups build the best products. GFS Accelerator has accelerated over 80 startups, which have collectively gone on to raise over $1.9 billion in funding and played a key role in making India one of the largest startup ecosystems in the world.

This mission is more important than ever right now, when this ecosystem faces many challenges. Like the last cohort, GFS Accelerator India continues to operate with an expanded scope of our 3 month mentorship and support program for startups. We’ve included startups across maturity levels that are not only utilizing cutting edge tech but are meaningfully helping India, and potentially the world, adapt and move forward in this season.

After screening over 700 applicants, we have identified 16 startups, to form the fifth class of GFS Accelerator India. These startups will receive 3 months of mentorship and support from our network of Google and Industry mentors. The ongoing support ranges from access to Google teams, tech guidance on projects, machine learning related support, UX and design mentorship, leadership workshops, networking opportunities, PR support and much more.

The latest batch comprises startups across key areas requiring innovation such healthcare, fintech, social, education, agritech and more.

EkinCare: Enterprise ready, end to end, holistic virtual care platform for payers like employers, insurance companies etc. to save on healthcare costs, and increase end user engagement

AgNext: Building trust, speed & transparency in food transactions across the agriculture supply chain using AI-based Rapid Food Quality Assessments.

Goals101: Making banking delightful, automated and contextual.

OkCredit: A digital bookkeeping solution for small businesses, making selling on credit easier for them.

Nemocare Wellness: Ending all preventable neonatal and maternal deaths in the developing world by building affordable, accurate, continuous smart monitoring wearables

Zypp Electric: Making last mile deliveries go Electric

Bolo Live (Bolo Indya): Live streaming app for next 500 mn internet users of India, enabling them to transform their social capital to financial independence by monetizing their content and fan base.

Yoda: Instagram for learning

Hypd: Content to Commerce platform, for the See It-Like It-Buy It generation!

EloElo: Creator-driven Vernacular Social Gaming platform that brings traditional Indian activities/ games online & enables Creators to monetize their talent effectively

Aquaconnect: Full-stack aquaculture technology venture to offer data-driven farm advisory and marketplace solutions to fish and shrimp farmers

Bullet: Combining convenience of UPI payment system with power of credit for daily spends

MedCords: Family's first digital touchpoint for affordable primary diagnosis and quick medicine delivery.

LegitQuest: B2B Legal Database Solution Provider

KareXpert: A fully integrated Hospital in the cloud - GSuite for hospitals of any size

Walrus: Digital bank for the Indian Youth

A warm welcome to the Class 5 of Google for Startups Accelerator India!

Posted by Paul Ravindranath G, Program Manager, Google for Startups Accelerator, India

Giving kids and teens a safer experience online

2021-08-10T19:48:00.003+05:30

We're committed to building products that are secure by default, private by design, and that put people in control. And while our policies don’t allow kids under 13 to create a standard Google account, we’ve worked hard to design enriching product experiences specifically for them, teens, and families. Through Family Link, we allow parents to set up supervised accounts for their children, set screen time limits, and more. Our Be Internet Awesome digital literacy program helps kids learn how to be safe and engaged digital citizens; and our dedicated YouTube Kids app, Kids Space and teacher approved apps in Play offer experiences that are customized for younger audiences.

Technology has helped kids and teens during the pandemic stay in school through lockdowns and maintain connections with family and friends. As kids and teens spend more time online, parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightly concerned about how to keep them safe. We engage with these groups regularly, and share these concerns.

Some countries are implementing regulations in this area, and as we comply with these regulations, we’re looking at ways to develop consistent product experiences and user controls for kids and teens globally. Today, we’re announcing a variety of new policies and updates:

Giving minors more control over their digital footprint

While we already provide a range of removal options for people using Google Search, children are at particular risk when it comes to controlling their imagery on the internet. In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce a new policy that enables anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from Google Image results. Of course, removing an image from Search doesn’t remove it from the web, but we believe this change will help give young people more control of their images online.

Tailoring product experiences for kids and teens

Some of our most popular products help kids and teens explore their interests, learn more about the world, and connect with friends. We’re committed to constantly making these experiences safer for them. That’s why in the coming weeks and months we're going to make a number of changes to Google Accounts for people under 18:

YouTube: We’re going to change the default upload setting to the most private option available for teens ages 13-17. In addition we’ll more prominently surface digital wellbeing features, and provide safeguards and education about commercial content. Learn more about these changes here.
Search: We have a range of systems, tools and policies that are designed to help people discover content from across the web while not surprising them with mature content they haven’t searched for. One of the protections we offer is SafeSearch, which helps filter out explicit results when enabled and is already on by default for all signed-in users under 13 who have accounts managed by Family Link. In the coming months, we’ll turn SafeSearch on for existing signed-in users under 18 and make this the default setting for teens setting up new accounts.
Assistant: We are always working to prevent mature content from surfacing during a child’s experience with Google Assistant on shared devices, and in the coming months we’ll be introducing new default protections. For example, we will apply our SafeSearch technology to the web browser on smart displays.
Location History: Location History is a Google account setting that helps make our products more useful. It's already off by default for all accounts, and children with supervised accounts don’t have the option of turning Location History on. Taking this a step further, we’ll soon extend this to users under the age of 18 globally, meaning that Location History will remain off (without the option to turn it on).
Play: Building on efforts like content ratings, and our "Teacher-approved apps" for quality kids content, we're launching a new safety section that will let parents know which apps follow our Families policies. Apps will be required to disclose how they use the data they collect in greater detail, making it easier for parents to decide if the app is right for their child before they download it.
Google Workspace for Education: As we recently announced, we’re making it much easier for administrators to tailor experiences for their users based on age (such as restricting student activity on YouTube). And to make web browsing safer, K-12 institutions will have SafeSearch technology enabled by default, while switching to Guest Mode and Incognito Mode for web browsing will be turned off by default.

New advertising changes

We’ll be expanding safeguards to prevent age-sensitive ad categories from being shown to teens, and we will block ad targeting based on the age, gender or interests of people under 18. We’ll start rolling out these updates across our products globally over the coming months. Our goal is to ensure we’re providing additional protections and delivering age-appropriate experiences for ads on Google.

New digital wellbeing tools

In Family Link, parents can set screen time limits and reminders for their kids’ supervised devices. And, on Assistant-enabled smart devices, we give parents control through Digital Wellbeing tools available in the Google Home app. In the coming months, we’ll roll out new Digital Wellbeing filters that allow people to block news, podcasts, and access to webpages on Assistant-enabled smart devices.

On YouTube, we’ll turn on take a break and bedtime reminders and turn off autoplay for users under 18. And, on YouTube Kids we’ll add an autoplay option and turn it off by default to empower parents to make the right choice for their families.

Transparency Resources: The Family Link Privacy Guide for Children and Teens and the Teen Privacy Guide

Improving how we communicate our data practices to kids and teens
Data plays an important role in making our products functional and helpful. It’s our job to make it easy for kids and teens to understand what data is being collected, why, and how it is used. Based on research, we’re developing engaging, easy-to-understand materials for young people and their parents to help them better understand our data practices. These resources will begin to roll out globally in the coming months.

Ongoing work to develop age assured product experiences

We regularly engage with kids and teens, parents, governments, industry leaders, and experts in the fields of privacy, child safety, wellbeing and education to design better, safer products for kids and teens. Having an accurate age for a user can be an important element in providing experiences tailored to their needs. Yet, knowing the accurate age of our users across multiple products and surfaces, while at the same time respecting their privacy and ensuring that our services remain accessible, is a complex challenge. It will require input from regulators, lawmakers, industry bodies, technology providers, and others to address it – and to ensure that we all build a safer internet for kids.

Posted by Mindy Brooks, General Manager, Kids and Families

YouTube Shorts Fund and 7 other ways to earn money and build Your Business on YouTube

2021-08-04T11:24:00.004+05:30

Earlier today, Robert Kyncl, Youtube’s Chief Business Officer announced the launch of the YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100M fund distributed over 2021-2022. Each month, we’ll invite thousands of eligible creators to claim a payment from the Fund. This is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube and any creator that meets our eligibility criteria can participate. We’re excited about what this means for creators in India. Not only does the Shorts Fund reward the next generation of mobile creators for their original contributions to Shorts, it also offers them a new way to earn money and build a business on YouTube.

YouTube has helped a growing community of Indian creators and artists to transform their creativity into viable businesses. Along with the YouTube Partner Program, which is our unique business model that shares the majority of revenue generated on the platform with creators, YouTube has continued investing in new monetization options for creators beyond advertising, including Merchandise, Channel Memberships, Super Chats and Super Stickers. We have seen a demonstrable impact of these revenue sources, with over 100% growth in creator revenue in India coming from features like Super Chat, Super Stickers, Channel Memberships and Merchandise between February and May 2020.

In addition to the Shorts Fund, here are 7 ways in which creators can continue to earn more revenues from their content on YouTube and build robust businesses.

Ads have been at the core of creators’ revenue streams, and continue to be the main way that creators can earn money on YouTube. Once in YPP, creators can decide which videos to turn on ads for. In addition to our Community Guidelines, videos must meet our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines to be eligible for ads. Creators receive the majority of the revenue generated from ads on YouTube.

YouTube Premium

YouTube Premium is a paid subscription option which enables members to enjoy ad-free content, background playback, downloads, exclusive content and premium access to the YouTube Music app. The majority of subscription revenue goes to YouTube partners.

Merchandise

The merch shelf allows channels to showcase their official branded merchandise right on their watch page on YouTube.

Bhuvan Bam launched his everyday streetwear brand, Youthiapa, in 2017 after building an enviable subscriber base for BB Ki Vines in just two years since he began uploading comedy sketches to YouTube. Today, more than 20.7M of his subscribers can browse for their favourite merchandise from tees to caps and even masks right by accessing his store on the channel.

When Garden Up’s Ekta was looking to grow her home decor and gardening accessories business, she introduced the YouTube Merch Shelf and displayed the Store tab on her channel, allowing her to showcase her products to her 1.28M subscribers.

Super Chat

Fans watching livestreams and Premieres can purchase a Super Chat: a highlighted message in the chat stream that stands out from the crowd to get even more of their favorite creator’s attention. Samay Raina emerged as one of the most subscribed chess streamers in India, clocking over 100M views for his content that sits at the intersection of chess game play and comedy. Samay not only supercharged interest in an age-old game, but has also increased his earnings from his YouTube channel at a time when revenues from on-ground gigs had come to a halt, building an engaged community of fans, with Super Chat.

With Super Chat, our leading gaming creators including Dynamo Gaming, MortaL, and Gamerfleet have taken their livestreams to the next level, creating immersive and interactive experiences for their audiences while monetizing their channel.

Super Stickers

Another way followers can show support during livestreams and Premieres is with Super Stickers, which allows fans to purchase a fun sticker that stands out. We have seen creators such as Payal Gaming, Natasha Gaming and Curlbury use Super Stickers to great effect.

Channel memberships

With channel memberships, creators can offer exclusive perks and content to viewers who join their channel as a monthly paying member at prices set by the creator. Nitin Bhatia, a creator who is also a full-time trader, utilizes channel memberships to share exclusive educational videos on stocks, real estate and personal finance with his members. He has seen almost a 6X increase in YouTube revenue within 18 months.

Among Carnatic musician Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s growing subscribers are Indians living abroad who have found a unique way to connect with their culture through his channel. Every month, he enthralls his audience with Sanjay Sabha that includes exclusive access to a special concert each month and early preview to his other videos.

Super Thanks

Viewers can give thanks and appreciation on uploaded videos as well through Super Thanks, the newest member of the Supers family. Super Thanks enables fans to support their favorite channels, while giving creators access to a new source of revenue. As an added bonus, fans will get a distinct, colorful comment to highlight the purchase, which creators can respond to. We’re excited to see how our creators will use Super Thanks to keep their connections with (super) fans meaningful!

Every new fan that subscribes to their favourite creators’ channels, every new member that joins, every like, comment received and every rupee earned goes into building the business ventures of tomorrow. At YouTube, the passion and ambition of our creators fuels us to continue innovating new ways to help them realise their goals and we are committed to introducing more revenue opportunities for our creators.

Posted by Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships, India

Helping viewers discover and buy products from Indian retailers through video: YouTube to acquire simsim

2021-07-20T10:00:00.004+05:30

As more and more shopping happens online, video has an important role in helping viewers discover new products and find expert advice they trust. Every day, people come to YouTube to compare products, watch reviews and find recommendations from their favorite creators. Today, we are taking another step to help viewers discover and buy products from local businesses: we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire simsim and expect to complete the transaction in the coming weeks.

simsim is helping small businesses in India transition to e-commerce by using the power of video and creators. The simsim app serves as a platform to connect local businesses, influencers and customers. Here’s how it works: creators post video reviews about products from local businesses, and viewers can buy those products directly through the app. Videos are available in three local languages including Hindi, Tamil and Bengali, enabling retailers of all sizes to reach buyers through video in their preferred language.

For over 15 years, small businesses have used YouTube to expand their presence online -- and many of them use YouTube to reach customers outside of their local community, from Interior Designers to Silk Sarees sellers. By bringing simsim and YouTube together, our goal is to help small businesses and retailers in India reach new customers in even more powerful ways. There will be no immediate changes to simsim, the app will continue operating independently while we work on ways to showcase simsim offers to YouTube viewers.

Today’s announcement builds on our ongoing investments in India, such as the India Digitization Fund. As we work with our partners to expand access to the Internet, we know online video will continue to grow as the primary way to find information, entertainment and connections in India. With over 2500 YouTube creators with over one million subscribers, and the success of YouTube Shorts, which we launched in India first, we’re committed to bringing the best of YouTube to India and growing the creator community by making it even easier for the new generation of mobile-first creators to get started.

In a joint statement, simsim cofounders, Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri and Saurabh Vashishtha said, “We started simsim with the mission of helping users across India shop online with ease, enabled through small sellers and brands showcasing and selling their products using the power of content by trusted influencers. Being a part of the YouTube and Google ecosystem furthers simsim in its mission. We cannot think of a better ecosystem in which to build simsim, in terms of technology, reach, creator networks and culture. We can’t wait to be part of YouTube and are excited to build simsim within the most admired tech company in the world.”

We’re inspired by the opportunity in India and look forward to working with the simsim team to build the future of online video commerce in India.

Posted by Gautam Anand, VP, YouTube APAC

The new Google Cloud region in Delhi NCR is now open

2021-07-15T12:00:00.019+05:30

In the past year, Google has worked to surface timely and reliable health information, amplify public health campaigns, and help nonprofits get urgent support to Indians in need. Now, we are continuing to focus on helping India’s businesses accelerate their digital transformation, deepening our commitment to India’s digitization and economic recovery. To support customers and the public sector in India and across Asia Pacific, we’re excited to announce that our new Google Cloud region in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) is now open.

Designed to help both Indian and global companies alike build highly available applications for their customers, the Delhi NCR region is our second Google Cloud region in India and 10th to open in Asia Pacific.

What customers and partners are saying

Navigating this past year has been a challenge for companies as they grapple with changing customers demands and economic uncertainty. Technology has played a critical role, and we’ve been fortunate to partner with and serve people, companies, and government institutions around the world to help them adapt. The Google Cloud region in Delhi NCR will help our customers adapt to new requirements, new opportunities and new ways of working, like we’ve helped so many companies do in the region:

InMobi scaled a personalized AI platform to support 120+ million active users. “With the arrival of the Google Cloud Delhi NCR, InMobi Group sees the opportunity to continue closing the gap between our users and products,” says Mohit Saxena, Co-founder and Group CTO of Inmobi. “Glance, especially, has been serving AI-powered personalised content to over 120 million active users. We can’t wait to continue giving them truly meaningful experiences that are speedy, scale well, and are relevant to them, by expanding the use of our current tools working on Google Cloud with the opening of a new region.”
Groww now supports a sizable user base. “Google Cloud provides great technology that enables us to build and scale infrastructure to millions of users, and the new Google Cloud region in Delhi NCR will continue to help more businesses and startups in India access powerful cloud-based infrastructure, products and services,” says Neeraj Singh, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Groww.
HDFC Bank is positioned for the future. "At HDFC Bank, we are harnessing technology platforms to both run and build the bank. As we progress to be future ready, the objective is to invest in future technologies that give us scale, efficiency and resiliency. Towards this the Google Cloud region in Delhi NCR will enable us to enhance our resiliency and help us in building an active-active design framework for our new generation applications on cloud," says Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, CIO, HDFC Bank.
Dr. Reddy’s Lab built a modern data platform with Google Cloud. “At Dr Reddy’s, we pride ourselves in helping patients regain good health, acting quickly to provide innovative solutions to address patients’ unmet needs and in accelerating access to medicines to people worldwide. Our Google Cloud-powered data platform is helping us realize these objectives and we welcome Google’s investment in the new Delhi NCR region as helping us and other businesses in India make further contributions to our social and economic future,” says Mukesh Rathi, Senior Vice President & CIO, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.
“To survive the disruption caused by the pandemic and to succeed in the long term, organizations need to become digital natives, so they can be more agile, explore new business models and build new capabilities that boost resilience. A cloud-first strategy plays a key role in enabling businesses to do this,” said Piyush N. Singh, Lead - India market unit & lead - Growth and Strategic Client Relationships, Asia Pacific and Latin America, Accenture. “Harnessing the potential of cloud requires the right data infrastructure and this expansion by Google Cloud will undoubtedly help Indian enterprises in their digital transformation journeys.”

A global network of regions

Delhi NCR joins 25 existing Google Cloud regions connected via our high-performance network, helping customers better serve their users and customers throughout the globe. As the second region in India, customers benefit from improved business continuity planning with distributed, secure infrastructure needed to meet IT and business requirements for disaster recovery, while maintaining data sovereignty.

With this new region, Google Cloud customers operating in India also benefit from low latency and high performance of their cloud-based workloads and data. Designed for high availability, the region opens with three availability zones to protect against service disruptions, and offers a portfolio of key products, including Compute Engine, App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Spanner, and BigQuery.

Supporting India’s recovery with training and education

Google and Google Cloud will also continue to support our customers with people and education programs. We’re investing in local talent and the local developer community to help enterprises digitally transform and support economic recovery.

Through the India Digitization Fund, we expanded our efforts to support India’s recovery from COVID-19—in particular, through programs to support education and small businesses. In addition to expanding internet access, and investments to help start-ups accelerate India’s digital transformation, we’ve grown our Grow with Google efforts. Businesses can access digital tools to maintain business continuity, find resources like quick help videos, and learn digital skills—in both English and in Hindi.

Helping customers build their transformation clouds

Google Cloud is here to support businesses, helping them get smarter with data, deploy faster, connect more easily with people and customers throughout the globe, and protect everything that matters to their businesses. The cloud region in Delhi NCR offers new technology and tools that can be a catalyst for this change. To learn more, visit the Google Cloud locations page, and be sure to watch the region launch event here.

Posted by Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director, Google Cloud India

Messages makes it easier to help you focus on the conversations that matter

2021-06-29T11:15:00.002+05:30

With our Messages app, we’re bringing a seamless and helpful experience on Android. We’ve heard from many users in India that they receive a lot of different types of messages, from friends and family and businesses sending promotions, receipts, order confirmations and more. With so many incoming texts vying for your attention, it can be difficult to separate the important ones from everything else. To help you easily manage your messages, today we have two new updates to the Messages app to share.

Messages stay organized

To keep your messages organized, we’re rolling out a brand new way to view them. The new experience uses machine learning technology to automatically sort your messages into categories, including personal, transactions, OTPs, and offers to help you easily find the messages that matter most the moment you need it. That means, bank transactions and bills will be filtered into the transactions tab, while conversations with saved numbers can be easily located in the personal tab. All of this happens safely on your device so your conversations stay in the app and you can access your categorized messages offline.

Keep your inbox clutter free

Last year, we expanded spam protection to help reduce the volume of unwanted messages by automatically moving suspected spam messages into a spam folder. To continue to keep your inbox free of clutter, we’re also providing the option to automatically delete your one-time passwords (OTPs) 24-hours after they’re received, so you don’t have to spend time deleting them manually. To enable it, just tap continue when you see the suggestion prompt to confirm your selection.

We hope these new updates help you easily manage your messages. We’ll start to roll them out over the coming weeks in English on Android phones in India running Android 8 and newer. These features are optional and can be managed in settings. To try them out, update your Messages app to the latest version or download the app.

Posted by Natalie Naruns, Product Manager, Android Messages

A new Android smartphone and 5G partnership with Jio

2021-06-24T15:24:00.000+05:30

Thank you to everyone at Reliance Industries for all you do for India — from investing in infrastructure and technology to creating jobs and expanding opportunity to supporting communities in need, especially in this difficult moment for the country.

It’s been devastating to see the country hit so hard by COVID-19. Yet it’s heartening to see how Reliance has stepped up to contribute to the national response and get support to the communities that need it most. On behalf of all of us at Google: We hope you are taking care and we are wishing for better days ahead.

For Google, the past year has brought renewed purpose and greater urgency to our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. At a time when so many aspects of our lives and work are moving online, it’s even more important to make technology accessible and helpful for everyone.

This goal is at the heart of our partnership with Reliance Jio. I was proud to help launch this partnership last year. It was the first and biggest equity investment from the ₹75,000 crore ($10 billion) Google for India Digitization Fund.

Our vision was to bring affordable access to information for Indians in their own language, to build new products and services for India’s unique needs, and to empower businesses with technology.

I’m excited that today, we can announce the next steps in this vision, starting with a new, affordable Jio smartphone, created with Google. Our teams have optimized a version of our Android OS especially for this device. It will offer language and translation features, a great camera, and support for the latest Android updates.

It is built for India and it will open up new possibilities for millions of new users who will experience the internet for the very first time. And we can’t wait to show you the device later this year.

I’m also proud to announce that we are taking our collaboration further with a new 5G partnership between Google Cloud and Jio.

It will help more than a billion Indians connect to a faster and better internet, support businesses in their digital transformation, and help Jio build new services in sectors like health, education and more — laying a foundation for the next phase of India’s digitization.

As part of this collaboration, Reliance will also shift its core retail businesses to Google Cloud’s infrastructure. They will be able take advantage of Google’s AI and machine learning, e-commerce, and demand forecasting offerings. Harnessing the reliability and performance of Google Cloud will enable these businesses to scale up as needed to respond to customer demand.

Empowering businesses as they embark on their digital transformation is a key part of our mission in India, and I’m excited for the innovations this partnership will help unleash. We are proud to play a part in India’s next wave of technological innovation.

Helping to connect 1.3 billion Indians to the opportunities the internet creates is meaningful to all of us at Google — and certainly to me personally. I know that with greater access to smartphones and improved connectivity, there’s no limit to what India’s people can do.

We look forward to getting technology into the hands of more people and to exploring what more we can achieve together in the years ahead.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet