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Google's Africa strategy: access, relevance, sustainability
8 Nov 2010
In a cold and rainy Cape Town on Monday morning (8 November 2010), Google launched gSouth Africa, its sixth African event of the past twelve months, inviting developers and tech entrepreneurs from all over the continent to come and engage to help create a better, more relevant internet for Africa.
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.
Reda the full article on www.memeburn.com.
Source: Memeburn
Launched in April 2010 by Matthew Buckland, Memeburn is a news and opinion platform tracking tech culture, innovation and business. It plays particular attention to the web, mobile, social media, online media and social networking fields. Key opinion-leaders contribute to Memeburn, providing their insights on the online industry. Subscribe via email or RSS for regular updates. Follow memeburn on Twitter at @memeburn.
Go to: http://www.memeburn.com
About Jeremy Daniel
Jeremy Daniel is the editor of www.memeburn.com, and a firm believer in the transformative power of mobile technology for emerging markets. Jeremy has written across various media platforms for the last 10 years, from television to advertising to print before making the permanent cultural leap into online journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @jeremytdaniel.
