Digital transactions in India are expected to grow to 30 bn in 24 months: Sanjay Gupta

At the seventh edition of ‘Google for India’, Google highlighted the benefits of India’s growing digital economy to more people and their extensive steps for the same. The announcements underline Google’s growing focus on product innovations that will help new Internet users in India get easier access to information in Indian languages, create more natural ways for local language speakers to interact with the internet, make the Android experience more helpful, and provide support to India’s small businesses and youth.

Delivering his keynote address at the seventh edition of ‘Google for India’, Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India, said, “The last seven years have been an incredible journey for all of us here at Google in India. We have developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it means to drive digital transformation in our country with over 1.3 billion people. We started with an India focus approach and today we are an India first company. Our mission is to make the Internet helpful and safer for a billion Indians by empowering India to become a leading digital economy. Our resolve has only gotten stronger as India continues to embrace incredible opportunities presented by digital transformation in the country.”

“Today, the Internet is visible everywhere in the country, in our personal lives, our businesses and our institutions. Even our most changed industries and sectors are now adopting digital technologies and realising incredible new possibilities that may not have been available to them a few years ago. All this is possible thanks to the investment made by India in improving this digital infrastructure. We feel we are at a critical moment for India and its journey to become a truly digital nation. In the last 12-18 months, as we adapted to deal with the pandemic, the Internet has become the most important enabler for both businesses and consumers. When you look at the pace of digital transformation in India, and study the most fundamental drivers of digitalisation in our country, India clearly emerges as a breakout country in the world and we are privileged to play the role of catalyst in this digital transformation,” he added.

Gupta further observed that in the last 12 months, India has added the highest number of smartphone users, almost 2.5x of the pre-pandemic times. The growth is not coming from the few pockets in the country, but now it is being driven by the users in India’s heartland. India today is doing 3.5 billion transactions a month, which is likely to grow to 30 billion transactions in the next 24 months. Looking at the e-commerce sectors during India’s festive season, the majority of the contribution has been driven by smaller towns and cities and the current growth rate is set to overtake modern retail in the next 4-5 years.

These fundamentals combine with India’s fast growing start-up ecosystem that has put India’s digitalisation on fast track. Indian start-ups are driving digital transformation across industries at scale. Consumers’ are spending 20% more time on smartphones and online video is fueling the creator economy growth at a big rate and shaping new experiences online.

He noted, “We are seeing the rise of new D2C brands becoming Unicorns within the span of a few years. Last year, our belief in India’s digital future led us to make a commitment to invest $10 billion under the ‘Google for India’ digitalisation fund and today, we can say with confidence that India’s aspiration of becoming a true digital economy is now well within reach. We are excited to continue working towards this goal with the innovative companies and entrepreneurs in the months and years ahead.”

These are excerpts from Sanjay Gupta’s keynote address. Watch his complete address below: