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Johannesburg - Google has had a South African presence for almost two years but still lacks a localised approach. That's about to change as the global search engine giant will be embarking on a campaign to educate business people, particularly from small and medium enterprises, in effective use of the online medium.
Newly appointed country manager Stephen Newton says this is because technical jargon often makes entry into online advertising and commerce difficult. There will also be a focus on assisting business, new and established, in how to best use the medium to situate itself around the 2010 World Cup. Talks will be held at the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce.
Classes will also be conducted at universities.Advertising agencies will be an important target market. "Although Google won't insist on agencies becoming authorised, we'd still encourage them to be trained to a certain level on their use of Google," says Newton.
He adds that the priority is to "open communication and talk with as many industry people as possible to get ideas and share thoughts." He says this will assist in accurately assessing the local market because it has its won intricacies.
For many, mobile telephony will be the route to access the Internet, as local mobile penetration stands at 98% of the adult population. The vast majority do not have computer access to the Internet.
- Fin24.com
