Blog

Google Nigeria is really trying to push for more Internet usage in Nigeria. 15 and 16 March Google held their third web and mobile conference in Lagos, the g Nigeria.

The event gathered developers, business leaders, entrepreneurs and passionate tech people. It was clear at the event that Google are quite serious about their commitment to making the web more relevant to the everyday Nigerian. There were sessions showing Nigerians new opportunities to make money from the Internet - and there is huge potential here. Take for instance a look at Google Trader if you want to earn a little extra cash.

At g Nigeria event, Google launched the Gmail Chat SMS. This new feature allow users to use Gmail Chat to communicate between all mobile phones and platforms, even if they are offline or have an SMS and voice only phone. The new products also allow users to receive Google+ SMS notifications and post status updates via SMS, and will ensure that the users are always connected with the people in their circles.

Just to give an idea of how big the Internet penetration in Nigeria is, here are some figures. According to Internet World Stats 29% of the Nigerian population is online - that is more than 45 mil users or about 32 % of the total number of African Internet users. For the sake of comparison, the Internet penetration in India is only 8 % and in the US it is 78,6 %.

Read more about the g Nigeria event  here. You can read Google's own Africa blog here.