An ex-employee explains top challenges facing Google India –and how to tackle them

 Despite having over 90% smartphone market share in India, Google is lacking a big consumer app in the country. Facebook has WhatsApp (and Messenger), both of which are massive in India, and Google is getting anxious that it could lose out. Google CEO Sundar Pichai made his first official trip to India in mid-December as the company looks to expand in the country. Pichai announced a partnership with the Indian government to bring more of India's 1.2 billion population online. Business Insider spoke to Keval Desai, an ex-Google employee turned investor, about the problems Google is having in one of the fastest growing markets on Earth. (He was keen to stress that his views are not based on inside knowledge, but an understanding of Google's culture and businesses.) Problem 1: India is a mobile-first country Unlike the US or Europe, the majority of internet users' first experiences of technology and the internet are on a mobile device (most likely a smartphone) rather than a PC. "Google has to re-architect its product [and] business model to this new mobile era," Desai said. "Google faces a completely new ecosystem in mobile that is similar to the old PC era of the '80s-'90s and not the web era of 2000s when Google was born." This change is not specific to India but the whole of Google's business and the company has been working hard on creating mobile apps for all platforms while expanding beyond search and advertising, which make up 90% of Google's revenues.

Google launches Chromebit in India, priced at Rs 7,999

After Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivered his keynote today in Delhi, Caesar Sengupta Google VP, product management launched the Asus Chromebit. Priced at Rs 7,999, the smartphone will be available starting January 2016. Scientists amazed how quickly lizards evolved new feetFuturity The Ultimate Way to Get Cheap Hotel RoomsSave70 Recommended By Colombia It is a PC-on-a-stick with Google's Chrome OS built-in; users need to plug the stick in a TV/monitor and pair it with keyboard and mouse to turn it into a fully-functioning computer. Chromebit CS10 is the world's smallest Chrome OS device and features 2G RAM, 16GB of storage and a Rockchip quad-core RK3288C processor. The Asus Chromebit CS10 runs on Chrome OS operating system and includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a USB port connectivity options. It comes with free 100GB of Google Drive space for 2 years.

If not Google CEO, I would still build software: Sundar Pichai

 Google CEO Sundar Pichai said even if he was not the chief executive of the internet search giant, he would still have been building software products. India-born Pichai revealed this in response to a question asked by a student during a Q&A session at SRCC in Delhi University. He is on his first trip outside the US since becoming the CEO of Google. Talking about where Pichai sees Google in next 30 years, he said he hopes that the company is still working on products that solve problems for the whole of humanity. He added this ethos of helping humanity using technology is why he was drawn to Google in the first place. Responding to a question on how his vision for Google differed from that of company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Pichai said that he shares the same aspirations for the company as the two founders. Therefore, he shares most approaches in problem-solving with them than not, even though there are some differences of opinion. Answering why Google has never named Android after an Indian dessert (all Android versions are named after desserts), Pichai jokingly said the company may hold an online poll while naming the next version of the mobile OS. Also Read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai writes open letter supporting Muslims 9 things CEO Sundar Pichai said at Google for India event Responding to host Harsha Bhogle's question about how Google plans to stay relevant in this time of change, Pichai said everything changes at a fast pace in the world of technology and there is a need to keep reinventing to remain relevant. He said the PCs were just getting underway in the 1980s, while internet as we know it came into being 10 years later. A decade later came smartphones and Android was not even in the market at the time. So reinventing itself and keeping abreast of change will help Google remain relevant in coming times. Top Comment Good you have that in you, you can still do whatever you have learnt so far.Shabir Maghar Talking about the current startup scene in India, Pichai said he had been waiting for this change in the country for many years and finally felt it when he visited India last year. He said the quality of ideas by Indian startup founders is the same as that of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and that India is well positioned to become the Silicon Valley of the East. Pichai added that failure is not to be ashamed of and should be taken as a learning instead. He said failed startups in Silicon Valley are considered a badge of honour due to the lessons the founders learned from the journey.