Emmanuel Sauquet, wireless strategic partner and development director of Google Asia Pacific and Latin America, said the move made Googling on the go possible in Thailand the first time. The company has already launched this service in several counties, including Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia and Malaysia.

He strongly believes that Thai people will benefit from the enhancement of Google on mobile phones, as have people in many countries where the service has been introduced.

"Thailand is a strong growing market for us and we have a dedicated team to take care of it. We are committed to developing and customising new services for Thai people," said Sauquet.

The move is to catch market opportunities in the future, especially revenue from advertising on mobile phones.

The profit structure of Google is based on advertising, while Internet penetration on mobile phones will take over Internet penetration on computers, he said. "Therefore Google needs to partner with mobile operators in many countries to serve Google on mobile phones, even though the advertising revenue is not yet solid."

Only in Japan has Google received revenue from advertising after launching it last year. The company has cooperated with local mobile operators in the United States, the United Kingdom and France to launch Google on mobile phones and generate revenue from advertising.

These are pioneer markets for advertising on mobile devices.

"Advertising on mobile phones has huge potential for profits in the future. Globally, mobile-users now outnumber computer-users by a factor of three, and that reflects the huge market on mobile phones. At this stage we do not want to mention revenue - we are concerned with enhancing people's experience of Google anywhere on any device. We want them to be happy and enjoy our services," said Sauquet.

Recently Google joined with Advance Info Services (AIS) to allow AIS users to easily experience Google on mobile, just by accessing the Google icon on AIS SIM-card menus.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation