Google's Airtel Deal to Bolster Its Cloud Presence in India - Zacks.com
22-Jan-2020 08:10:56 PM
Jan 22, 2020
Alphabet's GOOGL division Google is strengthening presence in the cloud market on the back of its robust portfolio.Moreover, the company's strong focus toward innovating offerings in the emerging cloud markets such as India is likely to drive customer momentum. This is evident from its latest partnership with Airtel, the third-largest telecommunication services company of India.Per the deal, Airtel has now authority to offer Google Cloud's G Suite — a suite of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products to its business clients.Notably, the latest move is likely to be a major breakthrough for Google Cloud in India, which holds significant prospects.Deal RationaleWe believe the deal under review is a win-win situation.The combination of Google's G Suite and Airtel's digital business services is expected to strengthen the latter's ICT portfolio. This, in turn, will enhance Airtel's offerings to the small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).Additionally, Google Cloud's adoption rate is likely to increase in India, courtesy of Airtel's huge customer base. Notably, this telecom company caters to 500,000 SMBs and 2,500 large businesses at present. Moreover, its subscriber base has exceeded 325 million.We believe the latest deal bodes well for Google's continued efforts toward expanding presence in the promising cloud space of India, which is witnessing solid demand owing to ongoing digitalization in the country.Per a report from Nasscom, cloud market of India is expected to hit $7.1 billion by 2022. Further, spending in IaaS is likely to see a CAGR of 25% between 2018 and 2022.