Google Steps up Money Making Plan in India

India has surpassed 100 million users and more are joining from the rural areas. In January, we shared that Google is most visited online brand in India with online properties like Google.com, YouTube, Orkut and Gmail all within the top ten list of most visited sites.

Now, with strong growth, Google plans to step up its monetization effort in India and here are five ways how the search behemoth is going to do it:

1. Expand sales team
2. Enter partnerships with advertising agencies
3. Focus on mobile and display advertising
4. Reach small-medium businesses who don’t have presence on Google
5. Focus on cloud computing software service

Google’s monetization project is led by Rajan Anandan, managing director and VP sales and operations at Google India. Anandan had previously help Dell and Microsoft grow their business in India to whopping sizes of $800 million and $1 billion respectively. Anandan himself is also an angel investor who has backed about 15 start-ups. With a good track record and entrepreneurial spirit, we know that Google’s monetization plan in India is in good hands. From The Economics Times:

“Google already has about 50,000 websites as part of its Google Display Networks (these sites display Google ads). It reaches out to 80% of the Internet population in India. “We have 22 of the 25 largest advertisers in India who advertise on Google. YouTube has crossed 20 million unique users in India. And there is AdMob (mobile advertising platform ). With 40 million mobile Internet users, even without 3G, it creates a very interesting mobile opportunity.”

With Google stepping up its effort, it creates opportunities for businesses in India as well. For example, businesses could help Google to sell its ad product, develop mobile ads, and manage Google Adwords accounts for clients.

Expanding across Asia

Apart from India, Google placed emphasis in Asia as a whole. Julian Persaud, Managing Director of Google Southeast Asia told us that Google plans to hire 500 new Googlers this year in Asia ranging from sales to engineering roles. Google has plans for both developing and developed markets in Asia.

“For advanced and maturing tech markets, we’re focused on connecting users with advertisers and launching more advanced web services and collaboration platforms like Google Maps and Google Docs. For fast-growing tech markets, we’re trying to expand access to the Internet and present users there with even more reasons to live their lives online,” said Persuad.

Apparently, India is classified as a maturing tech market. It’s another sign that Asia is rising: Exciting time ahead for all of us, Asians.