Google's Africa strategy: access, relevance, sustainability

The continent is the last digital frontier. More than one-billion people hungrily await the arrival of the net, and as the infrastructure reaches African shores, and the price of access drops, so the dream becomes a reality.

During the keynote address, Nelson Mattos, VP of Development for Europe, the Middle East and Afica (EMEA) acknowledged that, since the earliest days, Google realised that it benefits directly from a robust internet. The company has a commitment to making information freely available around the world and it realises that from that point, opportunities will follow.

Africa has huge challenges, according to Mattos. Specifically the diversity of the continent makes the creation of revelant content challenging. "If you want to be successful you have to do a good job at localising content," he told a packed auditorium. Africa lacks local content. Globally, there are 94 domains registered per 10 000 users, but in Africa, that number drops to only one domain per 10 000 users.

Half of sixteen year olds don't have internet access, and even when they do, affordability is a huge issue, severely curtailing their ability to interact.

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