Cebit Australia Keynote Address – 'Marketing to the Informed Consumer' by Karim Temsamani, General Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand

Karim started off by elaborating on the financial crisis, stating that the current recession has caused the past 4 years of financial gains to be wiped off the books. However recessions have been very good for innovation in the past. Google is now focusing on its core search business and prioritising where it spends its money. Consumers aren’t going anywhere, but they are using the internet to research and spend more wisely.
50% of Australians research a product on the internet prior to buying. Google insights showed the searches for coupons were up 90% from May last year. Browsing the internet was the #1 way to relax at home in Australia.
4 keys trends Google sees:
• We are on the cusp of a fully mobile internet (iPhone, Android etc) 1.4 billion people browse the internet while 4 billion people have mobile phones.
• ‘Openness‘ – the availability of different components that innovators can utilise to create great products; many of these components are available on the cloud.
• Rise of Social Networking – Its is only in its infancy but is already a catalyst for real world action. Here Karim uses the example of Barack Obama who leveraged social media to gain unprecedented grass roots engagement.
• Speed – Broadband networks that the government recently announced will be the greatest enabler of change in Australia. It will allow new innovation, new business models and allow greater consumer interaction.
Every minute of every day 15 hours of video is uploaded to Youtube, WOW, that’s seriously an incredible statistic. By 2019 an iPod will be able to carry 80 years of video on it. Businesses should embrace the internet to grow their sales online; businesses need to be online so that a consumer researching a product can find their online visibility. 41% of Europeans have changed their mind about what product to purchase by researching online. Data is the new cool tool. The vast majority of computing in the future will take place in the cloud. Convergence won’t happen at the device level, everything happens in the cloud and the devices will allow access to the cloud.
Some jaw dropping stats and interesting trends were discussed in this talk. Cloud computing was also one of the major talking points and it’s obviously where Google sees the future of information interaction.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.