Google products have become so ingrained into so many of our daily lives that we don’t even notice how often we use them. If one takes a step back, it’s a bit mental to consider.
Most of us use Gmail for our personal email, right? What online map service do you use? Oh yea, and what about when you need to, you know, search for something? Do you use Bing? I doubt it.
Google’s Chrome browser is rapidly gaining in popularity, partly because it integrates so well with Google’s suite of products. If you’re an Android smartphone user then you’re using a Google product for everything you do on your mobile, from texting to calling to taking photos to using the Facebook app.
And I’m sure you guys are all on Google Plus like 14 hours a day, right? OK maybe not, but not every product can be a home run. And it’s early yet in the social media game.
Last question: Do you know where Google opened an office in August of 2011? None other than Krung Thep Mahanakorn: Bangkok.
That fact says a lot about Thailand’s importance to Google’s strategy in Asia. The company chose to open an office here because Thailand is the perfect mix of developed and developing when it comes to the internet – it’s a large and fairly untapped market with the right amount of internet sophistication and its own language.
One of the main responsibilities of Google Thailand’s office in Bangkok is to localize the Google products that we all know so well, translating them into Thai and tweaking them to serve Thai people’s needs. It’s part of Google’s core philosophy that the user experience always comes first, so if there is a function in Gmail, for example, that’s well-used in the West but never touched in Thailand, the team here may nix it and make another more-used feature more prominent.
The office here is supposed to serve as a more personal outpost to the massive company. “We set up small sessions and do things locally,” says Thailand country head Ariya Banomyong. Ariya tells a story about a group of businessmen that were about to buy a load of expensive equipment to have videoconferences. “I told them that they didn’t need any of it and that they could do everything they needed for free with the Google Plus Hangout feature. They couldn’t believe it.”
One of the most important Google products in Thailand is Traffic & Transit, as Thais use it more than nearly any nationality in the world. With Bangkok’s legendary bumper-to-bumper traffic it’s no wonder.
Those planning to drive across town at rush hour can now easily check the roads online and then abandon all hope of doing so, thus saving hours trapped in the car.
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Google has partnered with Thai government transportation agencies, the BTS, the MRT, even khlong and river taxis to create the most comprehensive guide to navigating Bangkok’s chaos. It’s not only about checking traffic, the Transit feature is also a public transportation guide.
Let’s say someone wanted to get from Asoke intersection to Wat Pho. She may be considering taking a cab until she checked the traffic with Google on her smartphone. She could ask for the best route on public transportation and Google would order her to take the BTS to Siam, switch to the Silom line to Saphan Taksin station, and then hop on a river taxi to the temple.
Another main initiative for Google Thailand is to promote the creation of Thai language content from everyone from bloggers to businesses. “We estimate that less than 1% of all content on the internet is in Thai,” says Ariya. If Google is a massive worldwide brain trying to collect all the knowledge that’s out there, it’s extremely lacking in the Thai language department.
One way that they are indirectly creating more Thai content is through the Go Online program, that offers support for Thai businesses that want to create their first websites. The service – which includes free website registration, hosting, email, a business listing on Google Maps, consultation and training – has been hugely popular. Google aimed to sign up 50,000 business by the first year, but after six months 65,000 had already signed up.
It must be pointed out that Google of course is a for-profit venture (with reported profits of over USD 9 billion in 2011) and none of this is altruistic despite the company’s motto of “Don’t be evil.”
The more content on the internet, the more Google can crawl and categorize it, gleaning information about users and serving targeted ads to them. The more people use the internet, the more Google earns, to put it simply. You know that add for spam vegetable strudel (bake 20 minutes or until golden, serve with soy sauce) that comes up when you check your spam folder in Gmail? Google is making money off that, because for some strange reason people actually click on it
Perhaps the aspect of the company that could be called the closest to altruistic is the Google.org philanthropic arm, which set up a Crisis Response map during last year’s flooding. The map provided a user-generated and real-time resource for information on the disaster. Users could zoom in on a certain area and double click to see how deep the floodwaters were in that area. People could also post location-based photos and information on the situation where they were.
It’s a lot of work for the new Google Thailand team, that for now works out of a small office in CentralWorld. There’s no trademark Google “campus” with physio-ball chairs, free massages, and multiple gourmet cafeterias… yet. “Right now we have the largest cafeteria in Thailand… the 7th floor of CentralWorld,” says Ariya.
Google Thailand has about 15 employees currently but with the rate of internet growth here, they’ll probably be moving office soon. As Ariya puts it, “It’s no coincidence that we chose Thailand. It’s catching up very fast and that’s what makes it so interesting. ”
