Google has always been one of the most innovative technology companies out there which is dangling a little here and there between free services and paid services. What to offer in a free subscription and what more to offer in a paid subscription? However, the company aims to deliver the best of everything to its users along with keeping tabs on its revenue streams.
Recently, Alphabet’s Google has introduced an option for small businesses to upgrade their Gmail accounts to enable better feature upgrades like seamless video chatting, better calendar functionality and email newsletters as well.
As mentioned in a report by Reuters, the Google Workspace Individual that usually starts at a price of USD 7.99 per month is at an additional discount of USD 2. This is perceived as a part of the search engine company’s efforts to lure in more subscribers to some of its highest revenue-generating income services i.e., Google Photos and YouTube in barter for better functionality than the versions which are available for free.
Advertising is one way to attract new users and lure them into the Google Workspace but it only works for a certain section of the target audience. Google needs to come up with newer, more innovative ways to attract users through advertisements but offering new premium features in exchange for a paid subscription service is also a good approach to generate a separate revenue stream and what better than targeting small businesses.
The small business offering, recently introduced by Google on Monday is simply a dropped down version of the company’s existing plans that are aimed at larger organisations having an official website to use in the company’s email address.
Google knows the sheer volume of people using their “gmail.com” email address on business cards and this is the target audience that the company is trying to offer these subscription services to. Javier Soltero, Vice President for Google Workspace says that the unit informally stores business cards with an official @gmail.com address printed on them and this reminds the company of the sheer number of people using Google’s consumer products to run their businesses.
According to a report by Reuters, Google officially announces to launch Workspace Individual in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Japan and Canada in the coming months of 2021.
Furthermore, larger businesses and enterprises will now be able to control the encryption of files on Google Drive and prevent the search engine company from unlocking them.
Other than this, Google Chat which was previously known as Google Hangouts is now available to everyone and anyone, free of cost!