Tech giant, Google has released 5 new products into the Nigerian market. The products are G board, Health Knowledge Panel, Movie Showtime, Entertainment Archive, and Google Post.
G Board
This enables sending messages in local dialects like Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. With this app, you can type a message in your local dialect and let Google translate it for you into English or vice versa.
Health Knowledge Panel
This product helps Nigerians easily search for health related topics via google. The health panel covers up to 800 health conditions and is regularly vetted by doctors.
Movie Showtime
This helps movie lovers get the list and times for movies showing at a neighborhood cinema. According to Google, all you need to do its to “Just type ‘whatmovies are showing at the Ikeja Mall’ into Google, and Google will give a list of movies showing at Ikeja Mall plus the time those movies are showing,”
Entertainment Archive
Google archives Nollywood films and other local entertainment contents for information on the content such as content, artiste and other information.
According to the manager, Google Post will get more details of what a favourite musician, movie or sports star is up to.
Google Post.
This allows entertainers and businesses tp share visible updates directly to Google.
“This means you get your favourite star’s live update alongside your search results when you Google them.”
Why Google launched the products
Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade at a parley with journalists said the company had decided to release the products due to the significant proportion of searches that were health related. The firm has also partnered with doctors at the University of Ibadan to make sure answers provided are accurate.
Other benefits from the move
The products will enable Google to monetize a large but untapped section of the Nigerian market. While English is the official lingua franca, many Nigerians speak only their native dialects, and may thus not be making use of Google products. Introducing translate options, will increase usage of the product and thus more ad revenue for the company. Google had earlier released translate versions for Chinese, French and other major languages.
The Nigerian movie industry is one of the fastest growing globally, with a huge followership across Africa. Providing information about Nollywood films and cinema schedules enables the company to spread its tentacles in that area in form of advertising. The more consumers increase their use of the products, the bigger the increase in ad revenue for the firm. Google recently launched a promotional campaign for Youtube in partnership with telecom operators, where consumers can stream for free at selected times.
Technology firms are increasingly turning their attention to merging continents like Africa, and Asia as growth slows in other markets. In addition, the company in July unveiled plans to train 100,000 software developers in the country. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria last year.