Google unveils SMS service for Africa

June 29, 2009 · Filed Under News · Comment

On Monday, internet search giant Google Inc. unveiled its new service designed to provide information via SMS text message to mobile phone users in Africa. This service from the company is unveiled keeping in consideration the lowest rates of internet penetration in Africa, as the company acknowledged its latest blogpost at tits official blog.

The California based company’s blogpost on this latest development read, “At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home.”
“It’s important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need, in areas with the greatest information poverty,” Google added

On one hand as the internet penetration rates are the lowest in the African continent, Google cashed on the latest findings that revealed the world’s highest mobile phone growth rate in the region and that the mobile use on the continent is six times higher than Internet penetration.

According to Google, the new service, Google SMS, will be available first in Uganda. This service can be used to get information, via SMS, on a wide range of topics including health, agriculture tips, news, local weather and sports etc.

Google also announced that it is launching a service called Google Trader, another of its SMS based application.

Tags: Africa, Google, Google Inc, Google SMS, Google Trade, Internet, mobile phone, sms