Do you have a small business but find yourself struggling to get a website up and running due to cost or effort? Web search behemoth Google has announced the launch of Woza Online, an local initiative with which the company and its partners are aiming to bring local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) online.

South African businesses will receive the opportunity to create their own websites via the Woza Online site and develop an online presence for free, within the space of one hour or less.

From we’ve seen at the launch of the initiative at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria, setting up your website really is a breeze, requiring only an internet connection and a web browser without the need to download any software.  

Businesses participating in the initiative get:

Once created your site will also be automatically optimised for browsing via mobile phone. Unfortunately sites created via Woza Online are not optimised for online shopping.

Google has launched similar initiatives in 23 other countries around the globe ranging from the UK, Canada and Australia through to Brazil, France and Poland, helping to bring north of 400 000 businesses online over a two year period. Within Africa, this programme was launched in Kenya and Nigeria last year, with these countries seeing more than 20 000 businesses going online within the first two months.

According to the interim results of the latest (January 2012) SME survey conducted by World Wide Worx , there is a strong link between being online and being competitive, profitable and sustainable. The majority (79%) of SMEs with a website reported profitability, whereas only 59% of SMEs without a website reported the same.

Besides providing more enterprises with the opportunity to showcase their business online, Woza Online in partnership with the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), Vodacom as well as the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC), are also hoping to boost South Africa’s economic growth and create jobs via this initiative.

“The HRDC has partnered with Google to provide entrepreneurs with free websites,” said Dr. Blade Nzimande, minister of Higher Education and Training. “Today having a website is as important as having a telephone, yet over a third of SMEs are not online, and businesses with a website are 4 times more profitable than those without one.”

“Many businesses think that having a website is expensive or complicated. The HRDC is a platform where social partners can jointly seek solutions to identified blockages and the provision of websites to entrepreneurs will provide them with a head start by making it quick and easy for them to have an online presence. Through initiatives such as this, the internet will help create jobs and foster economic growth and development in SA.”

In related news Google recently found itself having to apologise to a Kenya based start-up, Mocality, after the company had its databases compromised by a Kenya team working for the internet search giant.

 

Check Google's video below on some SMEs that benefited from an online presence.