It is no longer news that Google has been making its footprints across Africa, starting with South Africa and Kenya and now spreading to all sub-Saharan African countries including Nigeria.

Google has since opened offices and hired people in both South Africa and Kenya and has recently announced for Office Lead roles in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. This indicates Google’s strong investment interests in Africa, the fastest growing mobile market in the world with mobile penetration ranging from 30% to 100% from country to country (with Nigeria as the largest telecoms market in Africa).

What It Could Mean for The Economy

Google’s presence will have a positive impact on Nigeria’s economy via the introduction of new products, services and innovations for both companies and consumers. These products and services will drive the Nigerian market towards competition and thereby make for price reductions on specific technology-related solutions. Possible products will include Google Enterprise Search, Google Apps Security, Compliance and a variety of free software services.

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In July this year, Google announced an Office Lead role for Nigeria which required that the successful candidate will represent the company in all of their major business development and partnership opportunities and serving as the voice of the Nigerian user at Google.

This position to be located in Lagos, Nigeria was created to pursue technology-driven initiatives in West Africa that will have a meaningful impact on the continent’s development.

Google is dedicated to developing business and partnerships with a range of organizations as well as driving the localization of Google’s products to local markets. Presently, these positions are located in the countries of Rwanda, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania.

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Google (I call them the Big G) has been one of the leading lions of the Internet jungle always looking out for preys to capture. Could you believe that Google bought 19 start-ups in 2007?

Google’s most recent start-up acquisitions were Begun (online advertising) from Russia for $140 million; Omnisio (Online video) from the US for $15 million; and TNC, a weblog software from South Korea for an undisclosed amount. Google’s largest acquisition as of March 2008 is the purchase of DoubleClick, an online advertising company, for US$3.1 billion.

Most Internet startups and their founders always dream of a multimillion-dollar buyout or the lucrative initial public offers. While it may seem impossible, we’d all love to think that Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft would soon be acquiring web startups out of Africa. The search company has footprints in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea and of course the United States.

Why not any African country?

Well with recent startup acquisitions from South Africa such as Zoopy by Vodacom and Afrigator by MIH Group/Naspers, we can somehow hope that the world is watching. That’s why StartupsNigeria is dedicated to covering web startups as well as web technologies and applications from Nigeria, in order to encourage huge companies to engage Nigerian entrepreneurs.

Recently, at the TieCon conference in Santa Clara, California, corporate development officers from the Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft discussed their acquisition strategies on a panel with Tod Francis, managing director of Shasta Ventures.

Here is a recap of the panel discussions:

From Google: the start-up needs to be ahead of Google’s internal curve in a given market, such as video (YouTube) or display advertising technology (DoubleClick), according to David Lawee, Google’s vice president of corporate development.

From Microsoft: the software giant is scouting for advertising platforms that can augment its own technology, as well as networks that aggregate audiences, according to Tivanka Ellawala, general manager of Corporate Development at Microsoft. He said that 10 of Microsoft’s last 20 buyouts were related to the Internet and that the company is also interested in mapping technologies.

From Yahoo: the Internet company casts a wide net when it comes to scouting for start-ups, but it looks for “really good companies”, according to Michael Burnett, senior director of global mergers and acquisitions for Yahoo. Last year, he said, the company looked at 500 companies, put 50 on a short list, fully examined 20, and finally acquired 9 companies.

At StartupsNigeria.com, we believe that these three Internet giants are interested in start-ups from Africa. While we wait for an African start-up that would get the world’s attention, we recommend that you keep visiting this blog for more startup news and tips.

Google has announced a project called Project 10¹⁰⁰  (pronounced “Project 10 to the 100th”), which is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. There will be ten winners competing for 10 million dollars in funding to launch their social entrepreneurial idea.

This is perhaps a special competition to celebrate Google’s 10-year anniversary?

Why this project?

Google answers…

Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.

The question is: what would help? And help most?

At Google, we don’t believe we have the answers, but we do believe the answers are out there. Maybe in a lab, or a company, or a university — but maybe not.

Maybe the answer that helps somebody is in your head, in something you’ve observed, some notion that you’ve been fiddling with, some small connection you’ve noticed, some old thing you have seen with new eyes.

If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.

Visit the Project 10¹⁰⁰ to learn how it works.

Today, I was looking through my Google Reader for news when I found this inspiring article from Joe Budde, a social media blogger at joebuddejr.com

He relates his experiences from his recent visit to Nigeria where he was able to teach two Nigerians, named Victor and Daniel how to utilize the resources on the web to educate themselves on the web marketplace, programing trends, standards, and how to find the best and brightest on the web to assist them.

The most awesome thing for these two Nigerians was Google Gears attached to Google Reader.  They could run into a internet cafe with their PC, download 200 articles, and then head back to their non-wired homes to read and learn how to do everything from use photoshop, learn about taking pictures, or even how to code better.

He believes that “the ability to take the online offline with you may not seem like a big deal in the USA - where wireless access seems to be almost as easy as clean water, but for developing nations, Gears is the technology that will drive internet adoption for the next 30 years.”

He then asks: How and where do you see google gears-esque technology making an impact in the developing world?