Learn More about Three New Google Products for Indonesia

Google announces three new products and programs in its second annual event "Google for Indonesia." The three products are Google Station Wi-Fi, YouTube Go, and Google Assistant in Indonesian. All of these products are part of Google's efforts to make the internet more useful and relevant for Indonesians.

"Our goal at Google is to build technology not for just a few people, but for everyone. [..] Right now we are trying to do three main things, namely to provide better internet access, make it easier to access relevant information, and provide more ways for Indonesians so that the internet can be useful for them," said Managing Director of Google Indonesia Tony Keusgen, Thursday (24/8).

Of the three things above, namely access, information, and contributions, Google becomes a reference in offering solutions for all the new products announced today. Here are the details:

Google Station

Google will provide public Wi-Fi hotspots for free in hundreds of locations across Java and Bali in the coming year. In providing this access, Google collaborates with two partners, namely FiberStar and CBN as internet network providers.

Indonesia is the second country to taste this product after previously being present in India. The results obtained by Google when it first arrived in India was that it succeeded in introducing the internet to 15 thousand new people after building a free internet network at 200 stations.

"We want to encourage new people to go online as much as possible. Indonesia and India have similar problems, that's why we test a lot of new products in these two countries," said Zuber Mohammad, Head of Youtube Marketing for Next Billion Users.

According to Zuber, in the future Google Station will become the company's new means for monetization. However, this process will only occur if the entire Wi-Fi network is strong and stable.

YouTube Go

This is a new app specially designed to provide data-efficient video viewing access. This application helps users save and watch videos smoothly even on weak connections, it also provides transparency and control over the amount of data spent watching videos.

Users can also view preview video first and select the video file size before saving it offline for viewing anytime.

Regarding the reason for Google's consideration of launching a separate application from YouTube, because the company views the targeted consumer segmentation as users smartphone in a tier 2 city, not in a big city like Jakarta. Despite the separation of applications, Google still believes the YouTube application will still be consumed by users in big cities.

Quoting from App Annie, more than 50 million Indonesians actively use YouTube on their mobile phones every month.

"We faced many challenges when considering the launch of the YouTube Go application, one of which is the uneven internet network infrastructure in Indonesia. Meanwhile, we want to make sure everyone has the same experience when surfing on YouTube. Therefore, this is the reason we launched a different application ," said Zuber.

Zuber said that currently the YouTube Go application is not officially available because it is still in the process of checking various tests. He hopes that in the coming months it will be released to the public.

Indonesian-language Google Assistant on Allo

Now Google Assistant which is supported by Indonesian has been present in the application chat hello. Google Assistant is a tech product Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supported machine learning, which allows users to interact in various ways. For example, getting help finding a new restaurant, checking daily soccer scores, and playing games with friends.

"We hope that with more users using Allo, the Google Assistant engine will be smarter in understanding the various Indonesian accents that are spoken," explained Google Allo Product Lead Adam Rodriguez.

Other product enhancements

In addition to the three products above, Google has also made a number of improvements to its old products. Among them, Google Search is now adding features shortcuts, can betap to explore user-selected topics in more detail. In addition, there are also features feed i.e. customizable content on your favorite topics, hobbies and trending news on the Google App.

Google Search also provides detailed information on common symptoms and treatments for the 700 most common health disorders. This data comes thanks to the collaboration between Google and the Mitra Keluarga hospital network. Indonesia is the fifth country to receive additional health information.

For image searches on Google Search, a version will be available lite. It is claimed in this version the search will be up to 30% faster, even in a 2G connection.

Not only that, the Waze navigation application has also received improvements to make it more relevant to Indonesians. Now Waze is adding features such as determining new routes based on odd and even number plates, following the rules currently in force in Jakarta.

The plan is that Waze will also add Indonesian voice commands without the user having to hold a cellphone and navigating street names in Indonesian, as well as a series of Indonesian voices.

According to Waze's Director of Growth Di-Ann Eisnor, the Waze app is already used by more than two million monthly active users. Interestingly, the majority of these figures come from Jakarta. This figure makes Jakarta the sixth largest user on Waze.

Commitment to fulfill the rules of the game in Indonesia

In a separate session, Tony also said that his party was fully committed to complying with the rules of the game in Indonesia as a service over-the-top (OTT) foreign. However, he did not give specific details about what the company will do and what its targets are.

"We will continue to respect the rules in Indonesia and try to stay comply," he said.

As is known, the government is still "pursuing" taxes from foreign OTT players such as Google and Facebook. The two giant companies have now agreed on a government regulation to establish the status of a Permanent Business Entity (BUT).