CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, who is on his first visit to Nigeria attended a Google For Nigeria event in Lagos yesterday, July 27 as the company launched a range of new products, including YouTube Go, an “offline first” version of the video sharing platform for users with slow internet connections. YouTube Go will enable users to preview and download videos, rather than stream, and which basically saves on costs data. Nigeria becomes the second market where the app will undergo a trial after India.
“YouTube Go’s three top features are performance, performance and more performance. To make the YouTube Go a reality, we used four main pillars – and the first is to be relatable with a simple interface, which will make it load instantly. This is great for simplicity. In addition to the home screen, YouTube Go wants to be the place for users to search for their favourite videos,” said Sundar Pichai.
Due to the slow and expensive internet access, most people limit their consumption of online video content, also Nigeria has one of the slowest internet speeds among the major countries in Africa. Notwithstanding, it is believed that this new data-friendly version of YouTube to help local users overcome that problem.
The CEO of Google said his company is also trying to fill the critical funding and skills gap on the continent. Google has committed $20 million in grants to “high impact non-profits” in Africa over the next few years. It will also provide $3 million in equity-free funding to African entrepreneurs and open its first Google Launchpad Space outside the United States in Lagos this year.
In addition, Google will train over 100,000 software developers across the continent, with an initial focus on Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. The training sessions will also be offered in local languages including Swahili, Hausa and Zulu and 40% of trainees will be women
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