IN THE PRESS

By Lee Wei Lian

KUALA LUMPUR , Dec 2 - Internet giant Google is offering a deal to more than 550,000 Malaysian small and medium sized businesses to help them get started with doing business on the web.

The offer includes RM200 worth of credit to conduct marketing campaigns via its search engine marketing platform, AdWords, and free tutorials on how to do online marketing.

The offer is part of a regional campaign to get more businesses onto its search based marketing platform which currently dominates the market and is also being rolled out in Thailand and Singapore.

Malaysian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have lagged behind their counterparts in more advanced Western countries in tapping the potential of the internet as a marketing and sales channel and many have yet to even establish a web presence.

Google earned roughly US$22 billion (RM74 billion) last year, 97 per cent of which came from selling advertising.

The offer to SMEs, called the SME Business Stimulus package, has gotten the official endorsement of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and involves the collaboration of two universities - Multimedia University (MMU) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR).

Google's head of Online, South East Asia, Charif El-Ansari said that SMEs should use Google as a sales channel in order to grow their business internationally.

"The RM200 free credit should last two to four weeks depending on how big their marketing campaign is," he said. "We also do not expect them to go straight into e-commerce but put up attractive websites where potential customers can submit request for quotations."

Google said that those using its services could potentially reach 73 per cent of all internet users globally, including millions in Malaysia, who use the search engine to find information on products and services such as reviews and to compare prices.

SME's that do not have a website can pay RM200 for one designed by students of MMU and UTAR and hosted on Google's blogger website hosting service.

MITI secretary general Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Mamat said at the launch of the SME Business Stimulus package today that he welcomes the involvement of the private sector in efforts to boost the contribution of Malaysian SME's to the country's new economic model which stresses innovation and high value services.

The offer expires on Jan 31 next year and businesses can sign up at www.google.com.my/stimulus. The first one hundred sign ups are eligible to have their website built for free if they do not already have one.

Source: http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/business/45270-google-reaches-out-to-small-malaysian-business