NDTV: You are known as one of the first investors in Google and you are also founding board member of the company.
Ram Shriram: First of all thank you for having me on the programme and it’s a pleasure to be here. No I had no premonition that Google will be a huge success that it is today. But clearly there were two very bright and capable entrepreneurs that I was investing in. Also when you invest in a young company you always look to the founders and hopefully if you pick them right then they’ll do great things.
NDTV: You also invested in Internet and web space when most people around the world didn’t know about it. Was that a foresight?
Ram Shriram: Well I don’t know whether I would call that a foresight or clairvoyance but it certainly was something I started doing shortly after my tenure at Netscape. As you know that Internet started with Netscape’s browser in 1994 and quickly grew so I had an interesting vantage point from where to observe the early growth of the Internet. This gave me the inspiration to start investing in the Internet space as early as mid 1990s.
NDTV: Google has been very well known for innovative services like Google Talk and Google Earth. So what’s the next big thing that Google is looking out for?
Ram Shriram: Well, I have nothing to announce with respect to Google other than to say that we are quite committed to India. We have development center in Bangalore with lots of engineers that are doing work for products that are serving the Indian consumers on Internet. We also have business operations centers in Hyderabad and Gurgaon and of course marketing and sales force in Delhi and Mumbai.
NDTV: What are your plans to invest in India?
Ram Shriram: We have invested heavily in people and development in India. I don’t have specific numbers because we look at it as different functions and how functions deliver.
NDTV: How well is India doing on the Internet space as compared to other countries?
Ram Shriram: I think India’s growth on the Internet space has been very good, however, relative to countries like China, India still does lack behind largely in the last mile delivery of Internet access. By that I mean the availability of broad access to individuals consumers through their Internet service providers, which needs more investment either from government or support from private players. This will certainly help to take Internet users from 30-40 million users to compete with China’s 200 million users. So India needs a good spectrum policy for wireless broadband access to grow and it needs equivalent of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) so that people are not afraid to host content. Moreover, there is also need to promote use to Internet tools and programming tools.
NDTV: What is your opinion on outlook of IT space in India?
Ram Shriram: I wouldn’t say it was not booming as it was before. I think the growth of Internet is phenomenal and it will continue and it certainly improves efficiency across many areas. We just announced partnership with Futurebazaar to develop an e-commerce site and we have also invested in PayMate, which is the first of its kind mobile payment service in India.
In addition to this we have also invested in a digital mapping company called MapMyIndia.com, mobile advertising space, animation studio and Cleartrip in the travel space.
NDTV: Is there any other sector that you are also looking to invest in India?
Ram Shriram: From earlier times I have invested in 24x7 Customer, which provides BPO services from India.
NDTV: As far as entrepreneurs in Internet space in India are concerned, do you see many of them?
Ram Shriram: This is the age of entrepreneurship in India and we are in a unique time in India where there is a huge amount of entrepreneurship going on from the youth of India and most of it is on the Internet. The government focus needs to be more on how to grow overall Internet pie and rival that of China’s. This could be achieved by encouraging more investment in Internet service providers and have a spectrum policy.
NDTV: By what percentage is Indian Internet space is growing and by what percentage do you see it growing in coming times?
Ram Shriram: It is growing nicely but it is growing slower than some of the other countries in Asia, so there is need to encourage the total usage of Internet in India.
NDTV: Apart from the Internet space which are the other areas you are looking at investing in India and overseas?
Ram Shriram: In India specifically we are looking to invest in clean energy. Our partner Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has deep expertise in that areas and we are bringing their expertise in that market to India. So we are looking at ventures in the clean energy space but we don’t have anything to announce today. We are looking at the clean energy market as a whole and figuring out where the opportunities are to make the environment better and at the same time make money.
NDTV: In terms of the entire global plan of Google where does India picture right now?
Ram Shriram: Clearly India is a very important market with a billion people but having only 30-40 million Internet users. With the rising use of Internet among India’s youth we see lot of users than the available Internet access.
NDTV: Is Microsoft acquiring Yahoo going to be a big hit on Google as well? Is that a threat for Google?
Ram Shriram: I will not speculate what might and might not happen there. I would say that it would reduce consumer choice if the acquisition takes place.
NDTV: What’s the next big thing that is going to come out in the market in terms of technology?
Ram Shriram: The next big thing is what you are already using today, which is all of these interesting applications from search to e-mail, personal productivity application to video and entertainment applications, all of those available to you anywhere, any place, any time, on any device and all the time.
NDTV: What’s the piece of advise for those who are either getting into Internet space or are planning to invest into it?
Ram Shriram: For entrepreneurs it is the right time to start a company and to be able to pursue your dreams of building an Internet business. Just have a great vision, good team and focus intensely on your dream to execute against it and you will achieve success.