Google to grow South African presence

Google South Africa has grown from a small team supporting the company’s advertising products in 2007, to having a far larger presence that supports a range of local products. This growth, according to Google South Africa country manager, Luke Mckend, is set to continue.

McKend told MyBroadband BusinessTech that Google is committed to South Africa for the long term: “In addition to staffing the office, we have already launched a number of projects that we believe will have greater and greater impact on the SA digital landscape”.

The Google SA head pointed to a range of projects under the company’s wing – which includes entrepreneurial and small business projects such as Woza online and Umbono.

Other products include the support of SA’s developer and student community, and the development of its advertising agency landscape through Google Engage.

“We look forward to not only growing the office, but to seeing each of these projects expand. We will also launch new initiatives that build the digital community in SA.”

Online advertising business in South Africa

McKend is optimistic about the South African online advertising market, saying that it is “vibrant, creative and more importantly, very competitive”.

“Advertisers and their agencies will continue to seek out new ways of reaching consumers as effectively and creatively as they can,” said McKend.

“Coupled with the explosive growth of internet usage, declining broadband pricing and greater access to internet-enabled mobile devices, we foresee that online marketing will continue to grow rapidly in 2012.”

McKend added that, what benefits Google, will also benefit South African businesses and the broader economy.

“We have advertisers that range from Wendy-House makers and baby-pram sellers in Joburg – to a para-gliding company and wine farms in Cape Town. On YouTube, we’ve seen home gym instructor SixPackFactory making over R600k a year off his popular channel,” concluded McKend.