Google Missed Out on China. Can It Flourish in India?
But intense efforts to adapt Google’s products for India —
and invent new ones to serve Indian customers — began in earnest in 2015 after Sundar Pichai, who was born in India, became Google’s chief executive.
“We have to figure out how to build the right products for them,” said Caesar Sengupta, the Google vice president who oversees
Next Billion Users, its unit dedicated to creating products for emerging markets like India, Brazil and Indonesia.
Arjun Vishwanathan, associate director of emerging technologies at IDC India, said
that search, Google’s core expertise, was “culturally not that important to Indians.”
“Where Google scores is its ability to keep it simple
and keep it convenient while letting the consumer decide what she wants to do without being in her face,” he said.
It has marshaled some of its best developers, designers
and researchers to figure out how to adapt or completely rethink products like YouTube to serve the needs of mobile internet users with smaller budgets but big aspirations.
At an event on Tuesday in New Delhi, Google unveiled its most ambitious India-focused product so far
— a new version of its Android operating system and related apps designed for low-end smartphones.