JOHOR BARU: More than 23,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have already signed up for the Google Malaysia “Get Malaysian Business Online” (GMBO) programme.
According to Google Malaysia communications and public relations head Zeffri Yusof, the GMBO initiative is a partnership between Google, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, .My Domain Registry, SME Corp and iTrain.
Zefri said there are currently about 700,000 SMEs operating in Malaysia, and only 100,000 have an online presence.
He pointed out that currently there were about 700,000 SMEs operating in Malaysia where only 100,000 have an online presence.
Zeffri added that the main purpose of the GMBO programme is to get more SMEs to use the Internet as a marketing platform for their products.
“Currently there are more than 17.5mil Malaysian Internet users who regularly search for products and services via online but there are not much local SME products that could be found on the World Wide Web,” he said.
He also said SMEs that have signed up for the programme and set up their own website have enjoyed vibrant business ever since.
“Their businesses have thrived tremendously and they are making a huge amount of profit ever since they marketed their products via online through blogs and social networking sites,” he said after attending the one-day GMBO programme held here recently.
Zeffri added that SMEs should grab such opportunities to help take their business to another level.
He said that Google Malaysia targets more than 50,000 SMEs to register for the GMBO programme that have been held in Sabah, Sarawak, Penang and now Johor.
“The problem for most SMEs operators is that they are not tech savvy but under the GMBO programme, we would train them on how to promote and market their products through the Internet.
“The programme is free however, SMEs need to pay about RM23 to register their domain,” he said, adding that the next stop for GMBO is the east coast.