Funds need not be only Indian proprietary capital: Rajan Anandan

Google India chief says firm is working with content publishers as there is not enough content in every single local language. He adds Indian companies can win globally because they compete in an open playing field.

Google has stepped up its local language focus as new internet users in India access it for vernacular language content. In an interview with ET, Google India MD Rajan Anandan says that companies like Flipkart have shown they can beat global firms, adding that there should be more local capital to fund Indian companies. Edited excerpts:

Revenue in India is still low for internet companies despite large user base.

Monetisation is tied to GDP per capita. If it is below $2,000 per capita income, there is no money, you are basically trying to survive. Between $2,000-4,000, you have disposable income that you are going to spend on a better home, children’s education, healthcare, buying a scooter, etc. After $4,000 it is entirely disposable income. Australia has only 22 million people, their ad market is $15 billion, 50% bigger than India. We have 1.3 billion people, why? If people don’t have money, they are not going to buy anything; if they are not going to buy, (companies) are not going to advertise. Our total ad market is $10 billion this year, of which digital last year was $ 1.8 billion. Penetration of digital is also small, because in a country of1.3 billion only 400 million are online.

When do you see the tipping point?
Around 2025. Whenever India gets to $4,000 per capita (income) you will see monetisation. Once people have disposable income, they (do discretionary) spend.

Are you seeing more local language content online?
Over 225 million Indians access the internet only in their local languages. That is more than half of the (400 million) users. Over 97% of content consumed on YouTube is not English. Even Indians who are proficient in English want entertainment in their languages. We have worked on it, Gboard supports 33 Indian languages; we have worked on voice and India is the world’s first voice driven internet market. The thing to solve is that there is not enough content in every single local language, so we are working with content publishers. We have a ML and AI stuff that we have built where you can translate content. Every single new user who is coming online now is not proficient in English.

India is drafting ecommerce policy and has left foreign players out...
TCS just crossed a $100-billion cap, its the 8th most valuable tech firm in the world. It competes against the best of the world in their home markets and has won. Reliance industries is what $80 billion (in market cap), most of their business is exports, they have built the world's best refinery. Indian companies can win globally because they compete in an open playing field. Its important that we continue to be that because it makes our companies much much stronger. I am not familiar with the ecommerce policy, we are not in the ecommerce business.

One concern is the network effect of the winner takes all in the internet economy. China has protected local players, can we replicate it here?
We have by the way already a large number of unicorns.

But they are not funded by Indian capital?
The real problem here is that we don’t really have the $50-billion funds. Flipkart is an Indian company, it’s just invested by non-Indian companies. Where is our $10 billion private equity fund? where is the Masa(yoshi son) of India? When it comes to digital, India needs to be progressive like the Rs 10,000 crore set aside to put into Indian fund of funds. The provident funds should be able to invest, you need capital sources. MakeMyTrip is the number one travel company, they have 70% market share. Naukri is the number one jobs site. In this world of global capital, it is not clear to me why does it have to be Indian proprietary capital. See the Flipkart, Amazon competition in ecommerce, what we have seen in the last 4-5 years, there is a question of can Indian companies compete or not? We know what’s happened. They can, now the question is capital.

India has to provide a level playing field to its companies...
India already has a level playing field, I think a lot of this started because a lot of these global companies were able to bring capital and Indian companies didn’t have capital, but that problem is solved now. The capital is coming from Japan and China. Indian entreprenuers left to their devices are the best in the world, What is required is $50 to $100 billion of capital. Somebody is going to do this because the potential is enormous.

Do we have enough local apps?
We would like to have many more built. We have a whole programme called build for India, or solve for India. One of the big pillars of our mission —Internet for every Indian —is startups. We are trying to get developers to build products and services for India in agriculture, irrigation, healthcare, energy, nutrition, etc.