'Google to bet on Pay, SMEs'

Google is betting on digital payments and wants to tap into the SME sector in India.

- Devina Sengupta

Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice president of Google India, in an conversation with Mint, outlined the company's future direction and revenue models. Edited Excerpts:

How do you foresee India's economic growth?

I joined Google four years back, and this is one of the most exciting times in India. India is changing very dramatically. But when I look at the fact that we are now a $3.6-3.7 trillion economy, the likelihood is, by 2030, we will be a $7 trillion-plus economy, minus a few $100 billion here or there.

How fast is the consumer internet economy expanding?

The consumer internet economy is $170 billion today and it will be at least a trillion dollars by 2030. That's a massive force of change, which means the consumer internet economy moves from 4% to close to 13 to 15%. So, not only becoming digital is core to the country, it is also the moving force for the growth of the economy. It is adding $850 billion to $3.5 trillion economy.

What is fuelling this growth in India?

The reason India is growing so deeply is of three reasons. One is the young population which is willing to embrace change very quickly. Whether it's the telecom revolution, UPI or anything you look at, people have embraced technology faster than you ever imagined. We introduced digital payment only in 2016 and it took off with Google Pay in 2017. It is six years old and the best in the world, the largest in some way.

The second big change has been digital public infrastructure. For the first time anywhere in the world, the economy or technology is being enabled by providing infrastructure, where there is a common infrastructure in some way being pulled together by the government. Still, private entities are what is driving it. UPI is one of the best-case examples.