BHOPAL: Hindi web consumption has grown at over 90% compared to English that recorded only at 19% growth. Google India organised a media interaction, highlighting the several initiatives it has taken to break down language barriers and to make knowledge more accessible to non-English users.
Recognising the growing demand for Indian language content amongst the users, there have been several India-first language products launched in the recent past, and the company has also integrated greater Indian language support across their existing products and services.
Google launched Voice Search in Hindi in 2014, Hindi tab on the search results page in June 2016 and enabled Hindi users to simply tap it to access search results in their language. Google Assistant was launched in 2017, and it was extended to Hindi in March 2018.
“To help Indian language users more effectively benefit from the power of the web, we have launched numerous voice and language experiences across our products including Google Assistant, Maps, Search, Translate, Chrome and Gboard,” said Nidhi Gupta, Senior Product Manager, Google India.
Internet Userbase in India
* Monthly active Internet users in India: 460 Million
* Total base of Smartphone Users: 380-400 Million
* New internet users added per annum between 2015- 2018: 40+ Million
* 9 out of 10 new users coming online are Indian language users
* 68% users consider Indic content more trustworthy
Growth witnessed from 2014:
* There were 200 million Internet users in India at the start of the year. This rose to 250 million by November 2014.
* The Indian language Search query share in 2014 was just2%. And that number today is around 20%, for just Hindi.
* The mobile user base in India in 2014 was 90 million. We’re now at between 380-400M mobile internet users.
Language growth in 2015-16:
* 47% YoY growth
* Hindi web consumption grows at over 90% between 2015-16 (English content growth was 19%)
* Over 40% (125M) of internet users were accessing language content
Voice Users
* 270% growth in voice searches
* 400% growth in Hindi voice searches
