Google Business Group Helping Georgia with Web Potential

Google Business Group (GBG) came to Georgia for the first time to hold an innovative two-day meeting at the Geo Lab in the Georgian American University.

Google Business Group, a non-profit community, is visiting Georgia to help advise local businessmen and developers to work together to improve the country’s web and mobile application offerings. GBG presents the opportunity for small and medium-sized companies to accomplish success with the help of modern technologies and with the advice of the employees it brings from around the globe who consult local companies as to what modern standards and basic requirements are necessary for the web and mobile applications that Google is naturally drawn to.

GBG experts first looked into the Georgian system before consulting Georgians what to refine. They then intend to present those Georgian Start Ups they consider as relevant to the market in Istanbul this summer where they will be meeting foreign investors for fundraising.

Google’s development experts are so influential that they can give Google HQ a list of consulted companies to highlight on the featured list, meaning that a particular application will be at the top position of the Google Play List, for which companies usually have to spend a lot of money. In the United States you need 95,000 installations to be put in this position, but in Europe less is required– 45,000.

The Google representative says: “If you want to succeed, you have to get a huge amount of users. Google helps post and share absolutely everything concerning web and mobile application and at the same time we can use mechanisms such as Google Analytics, Google AdSense etc. that will ultimately be a guarantee of success.”

Sadly, Georgia has yet to create a saleable application. Vakho Vakhtangishvili, GeoLab representative, attributes this to the low involvement of Georgians in the process.

“It is very sad that on the Google Play List there is no Georgian product. This is a result of lack of activity in the Georgian community. Strengthening Georgia’s involvement will help us to get Google to notice us. We have to show Google that the vast majority of Georgians are actually interested. We have also failed to persuade Google to take on the Georgian font for Google catalogues but we’re still negotiating with them in this regard,” Vakhtangishvili told GEORGIA TODAY.

GBG is an open community, not an organization; it is a group of people connected by the same interests who share their ideas and experience and help each other to succeed. The ideal place for such meeting and sharing in Georgia is Geo Lab. Further, Google has set up the ‘Google Auditorium’ in Tbilisi, offering a permanent space for Google representatives to come to Georgia and deliver workshops.

Meri Taliashvili

Photo: GeoLab