In a move to encourage small and medium business enterprises of India to adapt to cloud technologies, Google recently announced a nearly 50% cut in the rates for Google Apps for Businesses. The usual going rate of Google is USD 5 per user per month or 50 dollars a year. The Indian Rupee equivalent is Rs. 250 per month. The reductions lower the tariff to Rs. 150 per user per month or a one-time bulk payment of Rs. 1500 per annul This offer applies only to enterprises located in the Indian subcontinent. The price reduction does not affect extent or quality of services including web mail, calendars, Docs, Hangouts and Drive. The Google Apps with Vault costs Rs. 300 per month and includes data retrieval for investigation as well as company-wide data discovery and export, features not found in the regular App service.
It may work to Google’s advantage that it has recognized early on how price conscious Indians are. Google is looking at a huge potential market and may well have carried out the financial implications of lowering the prices and thus roping in a larger market segment. According to their analysis, only one percent of the over 47 million Indian enterprises are online or make extensive use of the internet for their businesses. It is moot whether a population used to freebies will even wish to pay Rs. 150 but even if the percentage jumps to 5%, it translates to huge revenues for the search giant.
