Febbraio, 2022

From Kenya to Lebanon, innovation lies at the heart of the many news organizations across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa where we are today inviting applications for the Innovation Challenges program.

As part of our ongoing commitment to support the news industry around the world, we are launching our third Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge in the region. Funding up to $150,000 is available via this open call for any digital innovative project and all news providers are eligible, regardless of size.

The program has been running in the region since 2019 and the first two rounds saw 43 projects selected from 18 countries. Those recipients answered a call for projects which would increase reader engagement and/or explore new business models. The ideas ranged from novel membership strategies to Arabic language search tools.

Successful past recipients include those featured in the videos on this blogpost as well as:

• Eco-Nai+ from Ripples in Nigeria is the first digital geojournalism platform for the country. Geojournalism is a form of data journalism which takes information from users, authoritative sources such as Google Earth, meteorological agencies and others, to cover issues tied to the question of climate change.
• Diaspora par TelQuel from TelQuel Digital in Morocco is a diaspora subscription platform for Morrocans of the world, publishing original content, practical guides, and history articles for audiences viewing abroad: mainly France (35%), Canada (9%) and Belgium (8%).
• My Town, My News from ynet in Israel is a newsroom tool which helps journalists create multiple hyperlocal stories individualized to specific locations across the country to provide statistical information such as COVID-19 rates or vaccination figures.

You can find out more about all the previous recipients on the website.

How to apply

Applications are open from now until Tuesday, April 5 2022. Established publishers, online-only players, news startups, publisher consortia, freelancers, press agencies, broadcasters and local industry associations are all eligible to apply.

Projects will be evaluated against five criteria: innovation, impact on news ecosystem, diversity, equity and inclusion; inspiration; and feasibility. The range of projects could be varied — we are intentionally not being prescriptive and instead welcome your boldest ideas. This could be anything from using Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom to diversifying your business model or figuring out ways to increase audience engagement or even reach new audiences. Whatever it is, we want to hear your sharpest solutions to the challenges faced on the ground.

The selected projects will be eligible to receive up to $150,000, not to exceed 70% of the total project cost. Please note that Google does not take any equity or intellectual property rights in any projects or submissions.

Applications must be made online via our website and are open until Tuesday, April 5 2022 at 23:59 GMT. As part of the application process, applicants are required to produce an explanatory slidedeck (please note the link opens a page to make your own copy to work in). We will also be holding an online town hall on Tuesday, March 8 at 10am GMT with a live presentation and the opportunity to ask questions.

We are looking forward to seeing fresh ideas come out of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, a region rich with talent, potential and opportunity. For more information about the challenge, visit g.co/newsinnovation.

There’s never been a more exciting time to be building a startup in Asia Pacific. Across the region, a diverse, talented and energetic group of founders is on the rise. And these entrepreneurs have an unprecedented opportunity to find the support they need to grow, with record venture funding flowing into the region.

For Google, supporting startups of all sizes is part of our commitment to help digital economies grow. Today, at a virtual Google for Startups event, we shared some of the key insights from our partnerships with founders throughout Asia Pacific: how they’re targeting global growth, moving technology forward, and seeking out support to help realize their potential.

Building for the world

In April 2021, there were almost 200 unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) in Asia Pacific, second only to the United States (290) and ahead of Europe (69). Many of Asia’s leading startups are making a global impact, whether by influencing new business models — like Grab and other Southeast Asian ‘super apps’ — or by tackling universal challenges — like CogSmart in Japan, which is working to help prevent dementia at an early age.

At the same time, the impact of COVID-19 has created greater demand for new digital services that startups are ideally-placed to build. In Southeast Asia, for example, 60 million people have become ‘digital consumers’ — using at least one online service — since the pandemic began.

Exploring emerging technologies

To meet the changing needs of the region’s online population, Asian startups are exploring what’s possible with the next wave of advances in technology. Many want to help solve entrenched social, financial and environmental challenges. Often they’re focused on areas where technology hasn’t made the same progress it has in more established sectors of the digital economy.

• In artificial intelligence, the region’s founders are working on a wide range of powerful applications. Indonesia’s Kata.ai is a leader in conversational AI, helping businesses provide better experiences for their customers, while India’s BrainSightAI is building new tools to help researchers and clinicians better understand the human brain.
• Decentralized finance (DeFi) is another growth area. Southeast Asian DeFi startups raised $1 billion in equity funding in 2021, six times the amount in 2020. With an eye on the shift away from traditional finance and trading, entrepreneurs behind startups like Korea’sDA:Ground are making it easier for people in the region to invest and access other financial services.
• Financial technology (fintech) and e-commerce in Asia is booming. Many founders working in the fintech sector are driven by the goal of making finance more inclusive and e-commerce an even better experience. The Philippines’ Advance is making it easier for Filipino workers to access zero-interest credit through responsible partnerships with their employers. In Singapore, Shopinks helps retailers better engage their customers through chatbots and personalized emails.
• In the wake of the pandemic, there is great momentum behind health technology startups such as India’s Zyla, which provides 24/7, personalized care through a mobile app, and Caredoc, a Korean platform that shares information on elderly care facilities.
• Other founders are increasingly focused on sustainability, given Asia’s vulnerability to the climate crisis. Startups contributing to the response include Indonesia’s Duitin, which is managing 2,000 waste management sites across Indonesia, and Taiwan’s Lockists, a shared transportation platform that helps improve air quality by reducing car use.

Laying foundations for growth

While there’s ample funding available for Asian startups, we know that the region’s founders need a much wider range of support beyond investment. Common challenges faced by startups in the region include keeping up with regulations (which differ at country, state and provincial levels), getting access to infrastructure or technologies, and increasing the current low rate of women’s entrepreneurship.

Our aim is to work with everyone in the startup community — including founders, venture capital firms and governments — to help move the entire ecosystem forward. This year, we’re running Google for Startups Accelerator programs in India, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, providing support and mentorship for growth-stage startups. Our new Startup Academy program — launched in Indonesia — will coach early-stage startups. We’re working to help a more diverse range of startups through the Women Founders Academy. And we continue to build close links with private and public sector partners who share our commitment, with initiatives like Project Hatcher in Taiwan and our Startups & FinTechs Program with Cyberport in Hong Kong.

At this moment of possibility for Asian startups, we want to make sure founders across the region have all the opportunities they need to grow, thrive and shape technology for the region and the world.

Every day, African businesses harness ingenuity to empower their communities. African software developers are an engine for digital transformation in local economies across the continent, and there’s no one better to solve challenges than local developers, founders, and entrepreneurs. And as African startup funding reaches unprecedented levels (growing by over 2.5x in 2021 over the previous year), understanding Africa’s developer landscape is key to support the growth of these startups.

For the second year in a row, Google published the Africa Developer Ecosystem report to map Africa’s developer landscape. We expanded this edition of the report to include year-on-year growth analysis, tech ecosystem components and key growth factors. The research was conducted in 16 African markets (Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda) and the findings were extrapolated to the rest of the continent.

Here are the five key takeaways from our study:

1. Africa’s developer population is growing across the continent.

We found that COVID-19 has continued to shape both the tech community at large and the nuances of the developer experience. Despite a contracting economy, the pool of professional developers increased by 3.8% to make up 0.4% of the continent’s non-agricultural workforce. Salaries and compensation also rose, and more developers secured full-time jobs.

2. VC investment in African startups rebounded as the digital economy expanded.

As local businesses transitioned online across the continent, they boosted the need for web development and data engineering skills. African startups raised over $4bn in 2021, 2.5x times more than in 2020, with fintech startups making up over half of this funding. The shift to remote work also created more employment opportunities across time zones and continents for African developers while lifting the pay for senior talent. As a result, international companies are now recruiting African developers at record rates.

3. Learners, junior developers, as well as underrepresented groups including women, need more support.

These groups faced challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Without access to in-person education — or affordable, reliable internet access and at-home equipment — they struggled to make gains last year. This can be seen in how the gender gap between men developers and women developers widened: there are 2.5% fewer women developers in the workforce than there were in 2020.

4. Educators, technology companies and governments are undertaking initiatives to strengthen the developer pipeline.

Educators, tech companies and governments can help developers succeed by improving internet access, education and business support. Bootcamps and certifications, run as part of formal and informal education, are working to bridge the vocational training gap between traditional education and employment moving forward. Global technology companies are investing in digital skill building across the continent to improve job readiness and alleviate the tech talent bottleneck. Governments can also play a vital role in strengthening the developer pipeline by investing in both internet access and education.

5. Nigeria is a striking example of the symbiotic relationship between digital transformation and developer growth in Africa.

The developer ecosystem in Nigeria is thriving, thanks to strong demand for developer talent, significant support from big tech, and Nigerian startups raising the largest total amount of funding on the continent in 2021. Nigeria had the highest number of new developers of all countries surveyed, with 5,000 additional developers joining Nigeria’s developer population in 2021. As countries like Nigeria continue to transform, they will unlock more opportunities for developers, who in turn, grow the economy.

To support the continued growth of Africa’s developers, technology companies, educators and governments are tackling local challenges through innovative partnerships and programs. Google is committed to supporting developers at each stage of their journey through regional developer training, community, and mentorship programs, including Google Developer Groups, Google Developer Student Clubs, Women Techmakers and Google Developer Experts.