The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

This past week, all news sources, and many of the Egyptian people for that matter, have been in a state of havoc and excitement since it was announced that Google is currently planning to start recruiting a full-time operations team for its newly opened Cairo office, including a new country manager and staff members. 

Here’s another update on the Google front. The American multinational technology company announced on Monday some interesting, and quite surprising, statistics from an analytical report, prepared by the UK research company, Public First. The main purpose of the document was to study the Google tools that are utilised the most in Egyptian households, companies, and society as a whole. Based on the report, the following conclusions were revealed: 

1. Google products in Egypt, such as AdSense, Google ads, YouTube, and Android, support economic activities in Egypt with at least 5.2 billion EGP a year!  
2. Consumer surplus for Google services, including the Google search engine, Google Maps, and YouTube, reaches 131 billion EGP a year. To further elaborate on the business term, “Consumer surplus” is the difference between the customer’s expected and actual payment for the tools. 
3.  As for the statistics about Egyptians who use the services for educational purposes, Public First states that 1 out of every 3 internet users uses the search engine to find new jobs. In addition, 77% watch YouTube videos to help them perform different household tasks, while 63% utilise Google Maps during vacations and business trips abroad. 
4. Google tools play a major role in local companies to facilitate the connection process with clients and to increase effectiveness in the workplace. As a matter of fact, 93% resort to the Google engine during work hours, and 73% of the local companies confirm that worldwide consumers are so much easier to reach, thanks to the search engine.

The tech giant will train approximately 100,000 people to gain valuable basic digital skills, in their “Google Skills Program” by the end of 2019, at which time at least 25,000 people will be able to find new jobs or further develop themselves in their current ones. Its comprehensive plan also includes helping to highlight the businesses of 200,000 companies by the end of the year, through Google. 

Lino Cattaruzzi, Google’s Managing Director for Business Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, stated, “Google has presented many products over the past years for people to use in their daily lives, to support their companies, as well as intensive training sessions to develop their basic digital skills. And we look forward to continuing to do so and also connect with the users to further recognise their needs, through our team in Cairo, while launching more initiatives and projects in Egypt in the future.”