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Google is turning the startup investor to pursue its goal of putting Google's services like search, maps, and its voice badistant in the forefront for the next billion dollars. Internet users in emerging markets. It has invested $ 22 million in KaiOS, the company that has designed an eponymous operating system for multifunction phones, which includes a range of native applications and other services similar to those of other companies. 39, a smart phone. As part of this investment, KaiOS will work on the integration of Google services such as search, maps, YouTube and its voice badistant on other KaiOS devices, after the initial announcement of Google apps. for Nokia KaiOS phones earlier this year.
"This funding will help us accelerate the development and worldwide deployment of KaiOS-enabled smartphones, enabling us to connect the vast population that still can not access the Internet, especially in emerging markets," said KaiOS CEO. Sébastien Codeville.
Our mobile world is now dominated by smartphones: there were 1.6 billion last year. But feature films have also continued to move: it is estimated that about 450 to 500 million of them were shipped in 2017. And their sales are currently growing faster than their cousins.
KaiOS-powered phones play squarely in the latter category, and they are gaining ground in markets where corporate phones still dominate. In India, they surpbaded Apple's iOS to become the second most popular devices after the Android handsets. KaiOS tells us that there have been more than 40 million KaiOS phones shipped to date.
Google's investment in KaiOS could be seen as a way to introduce its services to feature phone users who could eventually switch to smartphones. However, it is also possible to keep these users, even if they remain in the category of mobile phones, which continues to evolve and become more functional.
"We are excited to be working with Google to offer its services on more mobile devices," said Codeville, CEO of KaiOS. "Having a smart voice badistant on an affordable mobile phone is really revolutionary because it helps overcome some of the limitations of a keyboard."
A Nokia device running KaiOS
KaiOS is a US-based project that began in 2017, built on the ashes of the Mozilla Firefox OS experience, as a fork of Linux code. Firefox OS was intended to be the basis of a new wave of low-cost HTML-5 smartphones. And even though these devices and the ecosystem in general have never really taken off, KaiOS is much better off.
KaiOS powers phones manufactured by OEMs such as Nokia (HMD), Micromax and Alcatel, and operates with operators such as Sprint and AT & T – it has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. But its most significant rollout so far has been with India's Reliance Jio, the telco challenger that has disrupted the Indian market with affordable 4G data packets.
Reliance Jio offers its own range of KaiOS handsets and, coupled with its low-cost data packages, KaiOS market share in the India market has jumped to 15% – surpbading the iOS of Apple and ahead of Android. (Jio's own devices have actually increased the number of feature phones in India, as has been its impact in the country.)
This single market share in a high growth market like India is quite likely to pique the interest of Google.
"We want to make sure that Google apps and services are accessible to everyone, whether they use desktops, smart phones, or multifunction phones," said Anjali Joshi, vice president of Next Billion Users division. from Google. "Following the success of JioPhones, we are excited to be working with KaiOS to further improve access to information for mobile phone users around the world."
Beyond that, the Next Billion business unit is working on customizing Google's experience and services to meet the needs of new Internet users in emerging markets, including launching new services such as this neighborhood app and a program. High-performance public WiFi.
While Google continues to develop its Android smartphone platform, it has long been advocated to extend its services to other platforms, which has been the case with KaiOS.
In February, KaiOS announced the addition of Google search, Google Maps and Google Voice Assistant to the new Nokia 8110 phone, and it seems that it is Google's agreement that will be extended to all models as part of Google's investment.
To be clear, Google services are not the only ones on KaiOS. He added apps for Twitter and Facebook earlier this year, and he mixes dedicated KaiOS apps – WhatsApp is supposed to come – with other more basic HTML-5 web applications.
Google's investment in KaiOS is the latest in a series of direct startup operations of the US technology giant that accompanies the investments made by GV and CapitalG, its two investment arms. . Google has also supported the Dunzo Concierge Service and is partnering with the Orange carrier to make investments and eventually acquire start-ups in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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