Google to offer free websites to Saudi SMEs

Google plans to launch a series of events aimed at getting more Gulf firms online as it looks to increase its business in the Middle East, its regional managing director said. The world’s largest internet search engine estimates that just 15 percent of GCC businesses are currently online. Google aims to bolster numbers by developing free websites for small-to-medium-sized firms (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia and offering advice on how to monetise their digital presence, said Ari Kesisoglu. “The idea is that we want to help businesses get online. [We want to] make it extremely easy for businesses,” he said. “E-commerce is just in its infancy [in the GCC]…. Businesses need to be online before they can do any online business.”The concept follows a pilot scheme launched in the UK that offered around 1,500 businesses in Liverpool one-to-one advice about building a website and maximising their search potential.Google, which has rolled out a host of free initiatives in a bid to shake off allegations it has grown too powerful, said it would host its G-UAE Day on October 19-20in Dubai. G-Days are Google-hosted developer and tech business days that aim to introduce the tech community to the latest technologies.“One of the key things [about G-Days] is us brining the latest technology in the world to the region. We want to give people who are interested in doing things online and we want to help them. If at the end, we have a couple of new implementations of the latest technologies for the region that is a success,” said Kesisoglu. The Middle East is one of Google’s biggest growing markets, spurred by its burgeoning youth population.  Two thirds of the Arab world is under the age of 25 and among the fastest adopters of new online technology. Google told Arabian Business in June it was “aggressively” hiring staff and boosting investment in both its English and Arabic-language products in the region. Google in February said internet usage in the Middle East grew 39 percent in 2010, to 86 million people, up from 64 million the previous year. The digital advertising business – led by search engines, banner ads, mobile texts and social media, will swell to $170m this year (of a $3bn MENA advertising pie), up from $120m.