Google launches 4 year old products in Australia

Google Australia
It was in 2002, Google launched its internal enterprise searching solution, the Google Search Appliance and the Google Mini.

Today, Google brought these products into the land that few US corporations recognise as a developed country, Australia.

It never fails to surprise me how many global IT companies simply neglect providing content or services relevant to Australia. Google Maps only discovered Australia had roads a month ago, although still failing to deliver acceptable satellite images to most metropolitan area. And don’t get me started on Live Local maps. And it doesn’t end there, its not hard to find products or services that isn’t usable in Australia for a few years after its initial launch.

Don’t neglect Australia.

5 insightful thoughts

  1. Hey Renai, thanks for you article.

    Despite Google having sold versions of its enterprise products in some international markets for at least four years, he said they had not previously been launched in Australia due to the need to find the right partners.

    I think this sums up the attitude. Whenever a company is looking to expand into Australia, they need to find a ‘partner’, because we obviously speak another language and have vastly different cultures.

  2. As someone in the US once put it to me… there are more people in the greater New York area than in the entire country of Australia. You really need to put together a good business case to justify any investment in launching products into the Australian market.

    The upside to this is that is gives local companies an oportunity. Look at NZ and their trademe.co.nz auction site. After the NZ market was ignored by Ebay for a long time a local decided to give it a go… trademe.co.nz became the #1 auction site in NZ and was sold back in March for $700 million to Fairfax.

    There are plenty similar stories here in Australia… News Corp anyone?

    Regarding looking for partners… the issue with hardware products is that you will need to provide onsite support within a reasonable time frame. Unless you spend a fortune setting up a local office and hiring staff it’s sometimes more cost effective to find a local partner and share some of your profits.

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