In the 25 years since Google was founded, technology has created significant transformations — and perhaps nowhere more so than in Asia-Pacific.Today, the region is home…
A new report shows how training in digital skills and advanced technologies can prepare the workforce in Asia-Pacific for the jobs of the future.
The internet is embedded in every part of our day-to-day life— from online classes to paying bills to shopping online. But as digital activity increases, unfortunately d…
Since 2015, we have trained 60M in APAC through our Grow with Google programs. This past year we launched the Google Career Certificates (GCC) in 11 countries across Asi…
As a tech-forward region that’s home to a large percentage of global youth, there’s good reason to believe that the innovation that’s needed to engage in climate action …
Technology can help businesses grow — but only if the people who lead and work for those businesses have the right skills. Today, on Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Day, we’re reaffirming our commitment to Asia Pacific’s small businesses — and putting education and training at the center of our efforts to help them succeed and grow.
Since 2015, we’ve trained 8.5 million MSMEs across the region through our Grow with Google programs and partnerships. We stepped up these efforts when the global pandemic hit, and we’ve seen the impact of working more closely with governments and other businesses to close skills gaps and create opportunities. Our Saphan Digital program in Thailand has trained over 100,000 small businesses, while the Accelerate Vietnam Digital 4.0 initiative has trained 650,000 people. But we recognize there’s much more work ahead to ensure that MSMEs are prepared for longer-term economic and technological change.
Over the next year and beyond, we’ll be deepening our existing programs to support small businesses and launching new ones — like Expand with Google in Japan, focusing on helping MSMEs build their capabilities in digital advertising and e-commerce. We’ll also be helping MSMEs find the skilled people they need by expanding access to Google Career Certificates, which develop in-demand skills like IT support, data analytics and user experience design. In partnership with learning institutions and nonprofits, we’re providing free scholarships for certificates in India, Indonesia and Singapore, and we’ll be offering the same opportunity in more countries soon — we’ve committed to providing over 250,000 scholarships across Asia Pacific in 2022.
To ensure that opportunities to learn new skills are equitable, we’ll continue to support nonprofits across the region. Since 2019, through our Google.org philanthropic arm, we’ve contributed over $11 million in grants that support underserved MSMEs. We have provided grant funding to Youth Business International to reach more than 180,000 entrepreneurs through its Rapid Response and Recovery Program and to The Asia Foundation working with its partners to train more than 225,000 people through the Go Digital ASEAN initiative, endorsed by the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSMEs.
Helping MSMEs in underserved parts of the region will continue to be a major priority — including $4 million in Google.org support for The Asia Foundation, which will expand Go Digital ASEAN with new training programs including green skills, cybersecurity and financial planning.
Finally, we’ll keep playing our part to foster the next generation of businesses in Asia, through our Google for Startups programs, initiatives like the Women Founders Academy, and partnerships with governments like the ChangGoo program in Korea — which has helped 200 startups and created over 1,100 new jobs. Our developer programs — such as the Appscale Academy in India, a partnership with the MeitY Startup Hub — will continue to help app-makers (like health-technology startup Stamurai) grow globally.
Whether Asia Pacific’s entrepreneurs are long-established, or just starting out, we’re ready to help them adapt to change and thrive in the digital economy. And we look forward to celebrating their success.
Technology can help businesses grow — but only if the people who lead and work for those businesses have the right skills. Today, on Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Day, we’re reaffirming our commitment to Asia Pacific’s small businesses — and putting education and training at the center of our efforts to help them succeed and grow.
Since 2015, we’ve trained 8.5 million MSMEs across the region through our Grow with Google programs and partnerships. We stepped up these efforts when the global pandemic hit, and we’ve seen the impact of working more closely with governments and other businesses to close skills gaps and create opportunities. Our Saphan Digital program in Thailand has trained over 100,000 small businesses, while the Accelerate Vietnam Digital 4.0 initiative has trained 650,000 people. But we recognize there’s much more work ahead to ensure that MSMEs are prepared for longer-term economic and technological change.
Over the next year and beyond, we’ll be deepening our existing programs to support small businesses and launching new ones — like Expand with Google in Japan, focusing on helping MSMEs build their capabilities in digital advertising and e-commerce. We’ll also be helping MSMEs find the skilled people they need by expanding access to Google Career Certificates, which develop in-demand skills like IT support, data analytics and user experience design. In partnership with learning institutions and nonprofits, we’re providing free scholarships for certificates in India, Indonesia and Singapore, and we’ll be offering the same opportunity in more countries soon — we’ve committed to providing over 250,000 scholarships across Asia Pacific in 2022.
To ensure that opportunities to learn new skills are equitable, we’ll continue to support nonprofits across the region. Since 2019, through our Google.org philanthropic arm, we’ve contributed over $11 million in grants that support underserved MSMEs. We have provided grant funding to Youth Business International to reach more than 180,000 entrepreneurs through its Rapid Response and Recovery Program and to The Asia Foundation working with its partners to train more than 225,000 people through the Go Digital ASEAN initiative, endorsed by the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSMEs.
Helping MSMEs in underserved parts of the region will continue to be a major priority — including $4 million in Google.org support for The Asia Foundation, which will expand Go Digital ASEAN with new training programs including green skills, cybersecurity and financial planning.
Finally, we’ll keep playing our part to foster the next generation of businesses in Asia, through our Google for Startups programs, initiatives like the Women Founders Academy, and partnerships with governments like the ChangGoo program in Korea — which has helped 200 startups and created over 1,100 new jobs. Our developer programs — such as the Appscale Academy in India, a partnership with the MeitY Startup Hub — will continue to help app-makers (like health-technology startup Stamurai) grow globally.
Whether Asia Pacific’s entrepreneurs are long-established, or just starting out, we’re ready to help them adapt to change and thrive in the digital economy. And we look forward to celebrating their success.
Over the past two years, millions of people throughout Asia-Pacific have started using the internet for the first time, lifting the region’s online population to more than 2.5 billion. This wave of digital adoption has created new opportunities, helping people communicate, find information, and access vital services like health and education. But it’s also reinforced the need for vigilance in the face of a growing range of threats to online safety and privacy. Google Search reflects people’s concerns, with trends showing that searches related to privacy and data breaches grew by more than 20% in 2021, across places as diverse as Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Singapore.
This week, as we mark Safer Internet Day on February 8, we’re focused on the ways Google can help protect people in Asia-Pacific as they go about more of their lives and work online.
Our highest priority is to safeguard the Google tools that people use every day. We have hundreds of engineers and other experts, many based in Asia-Pacific, working to make sure that people’s accounts are secure and Google infrastructure is defended against intruders. These teams also develop simple tools — like Security Checkup and Privacy Checkup — which people can use to strengthen their security and privacy settings.
But we recognize that our responsibility for internet safety goes beyond our own tools and technology. Keeping people safe online is a shared challenge, not something that any one organization can do alone. One of the most powerful ways we can help protect people is by equipping them with the skills and knowledge to navigate the internet safely.
In Asia-Pacific, Google is supporting the work of organizations like the Sejiwa Foundation, which is dedicated to helping younger members of the community and their parents make safe decisions online. I was struck by the story of 24-year old Indah from West Sulawesi, who came across a job vacancy that required her to fill out a form online with personal information. Drawing on the knowledge she’d learned through the Sejiwa Foundation’s "Tangkas Berinternet" program, Nazwa was able to take simple steps to identify that the request was a scam — preventing her from sharing her data and making suspicious purchases on behalf of the scammer.
“Tangkas Beinternet” is the Indonesian version of Be Internet Awesome, an internet safety initiative delivered by Google and our partners around the world, including the Sejiwa Foundation and the Indonesian government. It’s an example of the collaborative approach that’s needed to deepen online safety knowledge in communities that too often miss out on digital education — and we want to enable more partnerships like these.
This year, through Google.org — Google’s philanthropic arm — we’re supporting nonprofit organizations in Asia-Pacific with approximately $5 million in grant funding to raise awareness about security and media literacy and promote positive online habits among underserved communities. This builds on the more than $11 million that Google.org has committed to digital responsibility initiatives over the past five years. Organizations Google.org has supported include Maarif Institute — whose Tular Nalar program with MAFINDO and Love Frankie is helping educators and young people in Indonesia become more media-literate — and Internews in India, whose FactShala initiative with Data Leads is helping people evaluate online information critically.
With the new funding from Google.org, we aim to help nonprofits give more people in every part of the region access to such educational opportunities. Together with the investments we’ll continue making to safeguard our own tools and platforms, we hope these efforts will contribute to global progress towards a safer internet for everyone.
Twenty years ago this month, Google opened the doors of its first overseas office — in Tokyo, with just a single employee. The office was rudimentary by today’s standards (the music system was a portable cassette deck). But our founders knew the Asia Pacific region would be central to Google’s mission of making information universally accessible. More importantly, Google also had an enormous amount to learn from the region.
Over the past 20 years, Google’s commitment to Asia Pacific has steadily deepened, and we’re proud to have helped support the region’s extraordinary growth. Today, 2.5 billion people are online here, almost all of them on mobile. We’re honored they use Google’s tools to improve their lives: finding jobs, learning new skills, building businesses, and pushing the boundaries of technology. It’s clear there remains huge, untapped potential for the future if we can continue to lay the foundations with the right investments and initiatives.
To mark the occasion, we wanted to reflect on some of the moments and themes that have defined Google’s 20 years in Asia.
Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at our first overseas office in Shibuya, Tokyo.
In 2004, two Aussies and two Danes came together in Sydney to develop a new kind of mapping technology for the internet. In February 2005, Google Maps was born — and it’s had quite a run since. As Maps got more sophisticated, Googlers in Asia Pacific went above and beyond to expand its reach, including Street View filming expeditions from Mongolia’s Lake Khövsgöl to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Australia’s Uluru.
Filming for Street View at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park in Central Australia in accordance with Tjukurpa law
In 2008, two Indian engineers realized that there wasn’t enough commercial mapping data of India for a full national map in Google Maps, so they built a tool called Google MapMaker, where communities could make their own additions to the map. It went on to be useful for everywhere around the world, especially in times of disaster like typhoons in the Philippines. We learned a big lesson here: when we build for the newest users in Asia, we build better for the world.
Google Pay has helped merchants across India accept digital payments.
In 2011, we opened our first data centers in Asia. The facilities in Singapore and Taiwan helped provide faster, more reliable access to our tools and services. Since then, we’ve kept increasing our investment in the physical infrastructure that supports the digital economy, adding more data centers and helping build subsea cables like Echo and Apricot. A study found that between 2010 and 2019, Google infrastructure investments like these contributed $430 billion in aggregate GDP and helped create 1.1 million jobs throughout the region. They’re crucial to Google Cloud’s growing presence in the region, helping companies like Japan’s Fast Retailing and Indonesia’s Tokopedia.
The scene at Google’s data center in Singapore when it opened in 2013
In the summer of 2014, Psy’s 2012 video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube. That incredible success was a seminal moment in a bigger story: how Korean ‘K-Pop’ artists were some of the first to use YouTube to reach new audiences around the world. As of today, nine of the top 10 24-hour debuts on YouTube are by Korean artists. And beyond Korea, creators across Asia are using YouTube to share their voice, help others learn, and make a living.
Psy's Gangnam Style broke records on YouTube.
Flappy Bird” was another big online moment in 2014. Created by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, the game became a huge hit around the world. It summed up the new possibilities for entrepreneurs building and marketing their mobile apps through Google Play. Today, Asia Pacific is the number one region for mobile subscriptions, the app market and the source of half of all global online gaming revenue.
Sundar Pichai meets “Flappy Bird” creator Dong Nguyen in Hanoi in 2015.
One particular challenge we’ve faced is how to bring digital knowledge and skills to people with limited access to the internet or restrictions on data. In parts of India, that initially meant using a rickshaw equipped with internet-enabled devices, information on using the web and an operator to explain how. Over time, we recognized that to really make a difference, we needed training programs to be embedded in communities — leading to the Internet Saathi initiative where female trainers share their knowledge with other women in their village. Between 2015 and 2020, we provided skills training to 50 million people across Asia Pacific through Grow with Google. And we continue to tailor our skills and education programs to local needs, whether it’s our Bangkit initiative in Indonesia (working with local tech firms to nurture talented developers) or our Skills Ignition partnership in Singapore(offering training and work placements for thousands of people).
The Internet Saathi initiative helps women in rural India use the internet.
DeepMind’s go-playing AI AlphaGo made the cover of Nature in January 2016 for being the first AI to ever beat a master at the 3,000-year-old game. In 2017. AlphaGo beat the former world-champion Lee Sedol 4-1 in Seoul. From there, DeepMind traveled to Wuzhen, China, where AlphaGo Master beat world champion Ke Jie 3-0 at the Future of Go Summit — an extraordinary event involving the world’s best players. AlphaGo has since retired, but the role of AI in society is only increasing. Today, we’re working with partners throughout Asia Pacific on ways AI can help with challenges like flood prediction and disease diagnosis.
Grandmaster Ke Jie locked in competition with AlphaGo in 2017
In September 2017, we brought HTC’s engineering talent into Google — cementing a decade-long partnership with the Taiwanese company, and marking a big step forward in Google’s plans to build devices combining the best of Google software and hardware. Today, our Pixel phones and Nest devices are popular across the region. And we’ve continued to invest in Asian companies bringing the best of technology to hundreds of millions of people, from Indonesia’s Gojek to India’s Reliance Jio. Together with Jio, we’re working on an affordable smartphone that will enable more Indians to get online.
Welcoming new HTC colleagues to Google’s engineering workforce in Taiwan in 2018.
As of 2020, Google Translate supports more than 30 languages across Asia Pacific. Extending the reach of Google Translate — and improving it with AI — is vital in a region of such vast linguistic diversity. But there are other steps that can make the internet more accessible and helpful: for example, building technology that’s intuitive for people who find it more natural to speak to their device. The rise of ‘voice users’ will be a big theme for Google and the entire tech industry in the decade ahead, and we’ve developed a playbook to guide technology-makers’ efforts.
A growing number of internet users in Asia prefer to speak to their phone, rather than type.
Twenty years ago this month, Google opened the doors of its first overseas office — in Tokyo, with just a single employee. The office was rudimentary by today’s standards (the music system was a portable cassette deck). But our founders knew the Asia Pacific region would be central to Google’s mission of making information universally accessible. More importantly, Google also had an enormous amount to learn from the region.
Over the past 20 years, Google’s commitment to Asia Pacific has steadily deepened, and we’re proud to have helped support the region’s extraordinary growth. Today, 2.5 billion people are online here, almost all of them on mobile. We’re honored they use Google’s tools to improve their lives: finding jobs, learning new skills, building businesses, and pushing the boundaries of technology. It’s clear there remains huge, untapped potential for the future if we can continue to lay the foundations with the right investments and initiatives.
To mark the occasion, we wanted to reflect on some of the moments and themes that have defined Google’s 20 years in Asia.
Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at our first overseas office in Shibuya, Tokyo.
In 2004, two Aussies and two Danes came together in Sydney to develop a new kind of mapping technology for the internet. In February 2005, Google Maps was born — and it’s had quite a run since. As Maps got more sophisticated, Googlers in Asia Pacific went above and beyond to expand its reach, including Street View filming expeditions from Mongolia’s Lake Khövsgöl to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Australia’s Uluru.
Filming for Street View at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park in Central Australia in accordance with Tjukurpa law
In 2008, two Indian engineers realized that there wasn’t enough commercial mapping data of India for a full national map in Google Maps, so they built a tool called Google MapMaker, where communities could make their own additions to the map. It went on to be useful for everywhere around the world, especially in times of disaster like typhoons in the Philippines. We learned a big lesson here: when we build for the newest users in Asia, we build better for the world.
Google Pay has helped merchants across India accept digital payments.
In 2011, we opened our first data centers in Asia. The facilities in Singapore and Taiwan helped provide faster, more reliable access to our tools and services. Since then, we’ve kept increasing our investment in the physical infrastructure that supports the digital economy, adding more data centers and helping build subsea cables like Echo and Apricot. A study found that between 2010 and 2019, Google infrastructure investments like these contributed $430 billion in aggregate GDP and helped create 1.1 million jobs throughout the region. They’re crucial to Google Cloud’s growing presence in the region, helping companies like Japan’s Fast Retailing and Indonesia’s Tokopedia.
The scene at Google’s data center in Singapore when it opened in 2013
In the summer of 2014, Psy’s 2012 video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube. That incredible success was a seminal moment in a bigger story: how Korean ‘K-Pop’ artists were some of the first to use YouTube to reach new audiences around the world. As of today, nine of the top 10 24-hour debuts on YouTube are by Korean artists. And beyond Korea, creators across Asia are using YouTube to share their voice, help others learn, and make a living.
Psy's Gangnam Style broke records on YouTube.
Flappy Bird” was another big online moment in 2014. Created by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, the game became a huge hit around the world. It summed up the new possibilities for entrepreneurs building and marketing their mobile apps through Google Play. Today, Asia Pacific is the number one region for mobile subscriptions, the app market and the source of half of all global online gaming revenue.
Sundar Pichai meets “Flappy Bird” creator Dong Nguyen in Hanoi in 2015.
One particular challenge we’ve faced is how to bring digital knowledge and skills to people with limited access to the internet or restrictions on data. In parts of India, that initially meant using a rickshaw equipped with internet-enabled devices, information on using the web and an operator to explain how. Over time, we recognized that to really make a difference, we needed training programs to be embedded in communities — leading to the Internet Saathi initiative where female trainers share their knowledge with other women in their village. Between 2015 and 2020, we provided skills training to 50 million people across Asia Pacific through Grow with Google. And we continue to tailor our skills and education programs to local needs, whether it’s our Bangkit initiative in Indonesia (working with local tech firms to nurture talented developers) or our Skills Ignition partnership in Singapore(offering training and work placements for thousands of people).
The Internet Saathi initiative helps women in rural India use the internet.
DeepMind’s go-playing AI AlphaGo made the cover of Nature in January 2016 for being the first AI to ever beat a master at the 3,000-year-old game. In 2017. AlphaGo beat the former world-champion Lee Sedol 4-1 in Seoul. From there, DeepMind traveled to Wuzhen, China, where AlphaGo Master beat world champion Ke Jie 3-0 at the Future of Go Summit — an extraordinary event involving the world’s best players. AlphaGo has since retired, but the role of AI in society is only increasing. Today, we’re working with partners throughout Asia Pacific on ways AI can help with challenges like flood prediction and disease diagnosis.
Grandmaster Ke Jie locked in competition with AlphaGo in 2017
In September 2017, we brought HTC’s engineering talent into Google — cementing a decade-long partnership with the Taiwanese company, and marking a big step forward in Google’s plans to build devices combining the best of Google software and hardware. Today, our Pixel phones and Nest devices are popular across the region. And we’ve continued to invest in Asian companies bringing the best of technology to hundreds of millions of people, from Indonesia’s Gojek to India’s Reliance Jio. Together with Jio, we’re working on an affordable smartphone that will enable more Indians to get online.
Welcoming new HTC colleagues to Google’s engineering workforce in Taiwan in 2018.
As of 2020, Google Translate supports more than 30 languages across Asia Pacific. Extending the reach of Google Translate — and improving it with AI — is vital in a region of such vast linguistic diversity. But there are other steps that can make the internet more accessible and helpful: for example, building technology that’s intuitive for people who find it more natural to speak to their device. The rise of ‘voice users’ will be a big theme for Google and the entire tech industry in the decade ahead, and we’ve developed a playbook to guide technology-makers’ efforts.
A growing number of internet users in Asia prefer to speak to their phone, rather than type.
