Official Google Africa Blog: 2021

Performance Max campaigns launch to advertisers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Thursday, December 9, 2021

The past 20 months have brought about unprecedented changes in both consumer and marketing behaviour. Whereas in 2020 people may have been searching for terms such as “DIY” or “home decor trends” to make the most of their time stuck at home, in the past few months we’ve seen a return to the type of searches we saw pre-pandemic. Globally, searches for “live music near me” have grown 400% year-on-year and searches for “healthy snacks for weight loss” grew 100% year-on-year.

Traditionally, that kind of change would have left marketers reeling to catch up. Thankfully, they no longer need a crystal ball to predict the latest consumer trends and demands. In a world where change is constant, automation is the solution. With that in mind, we introduced Performance Max campaigns in 2020. Performance Max is a new method for buying Google ads across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps from a single campaign.

After testing strongly, Performance Max campaigns will roll out to all advertisers in Sub-Saharan Africa and around the world this month. Within the next year, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will also both be upgraded to Performance Max.

Illustration of six mobile devices lined up next to each other, each showing a different ad example across Google’s channels. From left to right, they show ads on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Google Maps. Above the phones are the logos for each.

Increase conversions across Google’s full range of advertising channels and inventory with Performance Max Campaigns

Meet your consumers on their terms
More consumers than ever before are looking online for buying inspiration. For example, 77% of South African shoppers research a product on their smartphones before buying and nearly half of the people buying consumer electronics in South Africa first learned about the product online.

Because Performance Max allows advertisers to market their businesses across the full Google Ads inventory, their ads can be visible to more customers. Performance Max can also help increase online sales, generate leads, and grow offline sales in several ways. By embracing automation, for example, advertisers can get better value from their budgets.

When COVID-19 lockdowns hit, the South African Reserve Bank responded by lowering interest rates in a bid to limit economic damage. These low interest rates alongside an increase in online shopping and contactless payments, led to a more competitive credit card market.

So when banking group Nedbank wanted to stand out in this competitive market, it used Performance Max to drive up conversions for its new, affordable, gold credit card via an online application process. The results were positive, with conversions increasing by 26% and the cost per conversion decreasing by 17%. “In just 10 days of running Performance Max, the platform achieved outstanding results on click through rates and cost per application, increasing campaign reach and driving the highest number of clicks to the website,” says Nedbank Performance Media Manager Adheesha Panday.

Advertisers can also use Performance Max to better understand how automation is working and where they can improve their campaigns.

Image of the Insights page in Google Ads, with a line graph that shows week-over-week performance and a “Top insights” section to the right of the graph. Top insights include consumer interest insights, audience insights, change history insights, and auction insights.

Explore the Insights page to understand your brand’s performance

Image of the combinations report in Google Ads that shows how top-performing headlines, descriptions, images and logos are being combined to build creatives

The combinations report allows you to see which assets perform best together and get ideas for future assets to upload.

Investment firm Old Mutual was looking to expand the customer base for its tax-free savings account (TFSA). After implementing Performance Max, TFSA sales increased by 185% and impressions increased by 260.75%. “The insights we gained from Performance Max have been instrumental in growing the tax-free savings account product and we plan to keep using the product for this reason,” says Zacharia Motsei, Digital Campaign Manager, Old Mutual South Africa.

When marketers combine high-quality creative assets and their expertise about which audiences are most likely to convert, they can make automation more effective.

As one of the continent’s largest retailers, Makro is well-established in the brick and mortar space. But with the local e-commerce sector growing rapidly, it has worked to grow its online offerings. These efforts have paid off, with online sales increasing by 40% in 2020.

“Performance Max has provided a new income revenue stream and an efficient and effective way of reaching our customers on different platforms while scaling performance and growth,” says Makro Search Engine Optimisation Manager Wasanga Mehana.”

Improvements and new features for local marketers and retailers
Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will both upgrade to Performance Max in 2022. To make the transition easier for you, we’ll take your feedback and use it to build the right tools for you. We’ll be sharing more information early next year so stay tuned for that.

We know that your business is probably ramping up its festive season marketing plans at the moment. So, for now, you can carry on using Smart Shopping and Local campaigns, but when the time is right, you can start testing Performance Max.

Posted by Alistair Mokoena, Country Director: Google South Africa

Applications open for the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Class 7

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Radhika Bhachu is the co-founder and CEO of Ndovu, a startup dedicated to empowering Africans to develop wealth by promoting financial literacy and providing tools to aid with diversifying financial risks, strengthening security, and increasing financial resilience. Ndovu lays a strong emphasis on closing the gender wealth gap in Africa by intentionally focusing on women. This commitment is reflected in its female client base, which now accounts for 53%, as well as its gender-balanced staff, which presently comprises 50% female staff and 50% female advisory board members.

Ndovu is an alumnus of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program (GFSAA), and like other startups on the continent, it is tackling some of the region's most pressing issues while also providing economic opportunities and jobs. Together, startups in Africa have made some impressive moves in 2021, attracting incredible investments up to the sum of $1.1 billion to date: 69% higher than the entirety of 2020.

We launched the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program in 2017 to support startups to scale their solutions across the continent. So far, 82 startups from 17 African countries have participated in the program, and have gone on to raise over US$117 million in funding and created over 2,800 jobs around the continent. We are delighted to see the progress being made by these companies, and look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.

Today, we are pleased to announce that applications to the 7th cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Program are now open at g.co/AcceleratorAfrica

Ahead of a promising 2022, we have designed the program based on feedback from participating startups and with the continuous support of our global network of mentors. The program will run for 3 months, with a one-week virtual bootcamp per month, running from March through May 2022.

Applications for GFS Accelerator Africa are open from today through 14 January 2022. If you're building a great tech startup in Africa, or for Africa, you are welcome to apply!

Andy Volk, Head of Ecosystem, Sub-Saharan Africa

Supporting Journalism in Africa

Friday, October 29, 2021

Food for ManziGoogle News InitiativeSinelizwi citizen journalismGNI for Africa eventalmost doubledPulse

At the event, we also announced a partnership with UNESCO to further invest in training for journalists in Africa. Using its networks of established journalism schools, UNESCO will launch a collaborative programme to update journalism education and training programmes run by over 100 expert institutions in Africa, enabling them to better respond to the major changes in journalism and publishing in recent times. This new training initiative will roll out over the next 18 months.

Google is increasing its investment in and support of journalism in Africa, including a News Lab Teaching Fellow who provides locally relevant training for journalists in Southern Africa and programmes such as the Digital Growth Programme and Innovation Challenges which support publishers in their digital transformation. To be part of this training send an email to newslabsupport@google.com.

Watch the sessions from the event here.

Posted by Nitin Gajria, Managing Director, Sub Saharan Africa

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Soutenir le journalisme en Afrique

Le journalisme citoyen joue un rôle essentiel dans l’unification des communautés sud-africaines. Food for Manzi [LIEN] est une association qui racontent les histoires dont on ne parle jamais des communautés rurales et de l’agriculture d’Afrique du Sud afin de lutter contre les stéréotypes et d’encourager une forme de positivité. Avec le soutien de Google News Initiative, l'équipe a mis en place le projet de journalisme citoyen Sinelizwi, qui a permis de former 62 citoyens originaires des neuf provinces afin qu’ils relatent les récits des histoires locales pour renforcer et unir les communautés.

Des projets comme celui-ci sont la raison pour laquelle Google investit dans Google News Initiative (GNI), et cette semaine nous organisons le premier événement GNI pour l’Afrique qui se déroulera virtuellement du lundi 25 au vendredi 29 octobre.

Cet événement est l’occasion pour les journalistes, les éditeurs et les créateurs de contenu en Afrique d’en savoir plus sur les programmes de formation de Google destinés aux journalistes et aux professionnels de l’information. Qu’il s’agisse de comprendre comment les petites et moyennes entreprises de presse peuvent développer leurs activités numériques ou d’utiliser les informations et les données sur les consommateurs pour mieux comprendre les préférences des lecteurs et accroître la rentabilité et l’engagement, l’événement rassemble des experts de Google et de ce secteur d’activité pour partager des outils, des formations et les meilleures pratiques.

En Afrique, le paysage de l’information évolue rapidement. En cinq ans, le nombre de personnes qui consultent les plateformes numériques pour obtenir des contenus d’information a presque doublé. Cette progression exceptionnelle ouvre l’accès à l’information et permet d’accompagner une nouvelle génération de médias indépendants et numériques. Pourtant, tout le monde n’a pas la possibilité d’accéder à ces médias, et nombreuses sont les personnes et les communautés qui ne sont pas représentées dans l’actualité. Des associations qui s’efforcent de changer cette situation, comme Pulse au Nigeria [LIEN], participeront également à cet événement. Elles expliqueront comment celle-ci a utilisé les nouveaux formats numériques pour attirer un large public de jeunes et développé des formats tels que les « Explainers » (notes ou vidéos explicatives) pour fournir un contexte supplémentaire - et indispensable - pour permettre la circulation de l’information.

Lors de cet événement, nous avons également annoncé un partenariat avec l’UNESCO pour investir davantage dans la formation des journalistes en Afrique. En s’appuyant sur ses réseaux d’écoles de journalisme, l’UNESCO lancera un programme collaboratif visant à actualiser les programmes d’enseignement et de formation au journalisme gérés par une centaine d'institutions spécialisées en Afrique, pour leur permettre de mieux répondre aux changements majeurs intervenus récemment dans le domaine du journalisme et de l’édition. Cette nouvelle initiative de formation sera déployée au cours des 18 prochains mois.

Google accroît ses investissements et son soutien au journalisme en Afrique, notamment par le biais du News Lab Teaching Fellow qui dispense aux journalistes d’Afrique australe une formation adaptée aux réalités locales. Google met également en place des programmes tels que le programme de développement numérique et le programme d’aide à l’innovation ainsi que les Défis de l’innovation en vue d’accompagner les éditeurs dans la transformation numérique. Pour participer à cette formation, envoyez un courriel à newslabsupport@google.com.

Regardez les sessions de l'événement ici.

Poste par Nitin Gajria, Directeur général, Afrique subsaharienne

Meet The #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Earlier this year, we introduced the inaugural #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund Artist Class of 2021. In doing so, we had one goal: Amplify Black voices on YouTube. To accomplish this mission, we provided the participating artists with the following:

Dedicated partner support from YouTube
Seed funding invested into the development of their channels
The opportunity to participate in training and networking programs focused on production, fan engagement, and wellbeing

As we shared back in July, the inaugural class achieved incredible feats on our platform, far outperforming any expectations. From Mariah The Scientist’s exclusive live set in support of NIVA, to Rexx Life Raj, Joy Oladokun, and Tkay Maidza taking center stage at YouTube’s annual Brandcast event, and every success in between. We want to thank each and every one of these individuals for bringing so much energy and passion to the program and for sharing the power of their music with fans around the world.

As we celebrate the success of these artists, today we’re excited to grow and reaffirm our commitment to Black musical excellence by announcing the #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022. Expanding on our commitment, this new class will also include songwriters and producers, and for the first time ever, the classes will have the opportunity to come together to co-write and collaborate.

We’re also honored to introduce Hip Hop ICON and the genre's most notable storyteller, Slick Rick,as the inaugural mentor member of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Artist Class of 2022. In this capacity, Slick Rick will play an additional role, sharing his wisdom and experience with fellow grant recipients within educational and networking programs for the class.

These artists, songwriters, and producers — from the United States, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, United Kingdom, Canada — speak to the vastness of the pool of Black genius. Limitless in genre, identity, talent, innovation, and creativity, their voices and the music they make encapsulate the global experience of Black people–past, present, and future.

Please meet the the #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022:

#YouTubeBlack Voices Artist Class of 2022

Azawi (Kampala, Uganda), Barkaa (Barkindji Nation, Western NSW), Blanco Brown (Atlanta, Georgia, United States), Bree Runway (East London, England, United Kingdom), Budjerah (Fingal Head, Australia), Cico P (Jacksonville, Texas, United States), Cimafunk (Pinar del Rio, Cuba), CKay (Anambra, Nigeria), Dijon (Ellicott City, Maryland, United States), Elaine (Pretoria, South Africa), EST Gee (Louisville, Kentucky, United States), Jonathan Ferr (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Jords (Croydon, England, United Kingdom), Kadhja Bonet (Long Beach, California, United States), Kamille (London, England, United Kingdom), Liniker (São Paulo, Brazil), Liza (Toronto, Canada), midwxst (Carmel, Indiana, United States), Monaleo (Houston, Texas, United States), Nija (Union City, New Jersey, United States), NorthSideBenji (Toronto, Canada), NSG (London, England, United Kingdom), Omah Lay (Port Harcourt, Nigeria), Rico Dalasam (São Paulo, Brazil), Savannah Ré (Toronto, Canada), Tai Verdes (Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, CA), Tamera (Kent, England), Tasha & Tracie (São Paulo, Brazil), Teezo Touchdown (Beaumont, Texas, United States), whiterosemoxie (Detroit, Michigan, United States) and one of the globes most legendary voices in hip hop, the legendary Slick Rick The Ruler (from The Bronx, New York United States)

For more information on the Artist Class, click here.

#YouTubeBlack Voices Songwriter & Producer Class of 2022

Cadenza (London, England, United Kingdom), Compass (North London, England, United Kingdom), Dallas Woods (Wyndham, West Australia, Australia), Dj Lag (Johannesburg, South Africa), Gloria Kaba (Irvington, New Jersey, United States), HARV (Kansas City, Missouri, United States), IamTash (Boston, Massachusetts, United States), Jay Versace (Pleasantville, New Jersey, United States), jetsonmade (Columbia, South Carolina, United States), Kobie Dee (South Sydney, Bidjigal Land, Australia), Léo Casa 1 (São Paulo, Brazil), Major League DJz (Johannesburg, South Africa), Mu540 (Praia Grande, São Paulo, Brazil), Nova Wav (Tallahassee, Florida / Atlanta, Georgia, United States), OG Parker (Atlanta, Georgia, United States), P.Priime (Lagos, Nigeria), RDD (Paulo Afonso, Bahia, Brazil), Rodriguinho (Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil), Telz (Lagos, Nigeria), Walshy Fire (Miami, Florida, United States), WondaGurl (Toronto, Canada), YAOB (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

For more information on the Songwriter & Producer Class, click here.

Posted by The YouTube Music Team
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Notre investissement d’un milliard de dollars dans la transformation numérique de l’Afrique

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Read the blogpost in English

Note de l’éditeur : Aujourd’hui, à l’occasion de Google pour l’Afrique, le PDG de Google, Sundar Pichai, a annoncé un investissement d’un milliard de dollars en Afrique sur cinq ans, couvrant une série d’initiatives, allant de l’amélioration de la connectivité aux investissements dans les start-up. Vous trouverez ci-dessous une transcription éditée de ses remarques. Retrouvez l’intégralité de cet événement ci-dessous ou sur YouTube.

L’Afrique est en pleine effervescence et nous sommes ravis d’en faire la démonstration à l’occasion de notre premier événement Google pour l’Afrique.

Bien sûr, l’Afrique doit également relever des défis considérables. La pandémie continue d’avoir un impact profond sur les communautés de ce continent et du monde entier. J’espère que chacun prend soin de soi en ces temps difficiles.

Nous avons constaté que la technologie peut être d’une grande aide, qu’il s’agisse d’un parent à la recherche d’informations pour préserver la santé de sa famille, d’un étudiant dont les cours sont dispensés en distanciel ou d’un entrepreneur qui souhaite toucher de nouveaux clients et s’implanter sur de nouveaux marchés. Être utile dans ces moments est au cœur de notre mission : organiser les informations disponibles dans le monde et les rendre universellement accessibles et utiles.

L’extension des possibilités offertes par la technologie est un thème qui me tient particulièrement à cœur. Sans doute parce que j’ai grandi sans y avoir réellement accès. Chaque nouvelle technologie - du téléphone à cadran à la télévision - a amélioré la vie de ma famille. C’est la raison pour laquelle je suis optimiste face aux avancées de la technologie. Je crois en la façon dont les gens peuvent l’exploiter à des fins utiles.

Je vois tellement d’exemples à travers l’Afrique aujourd’hui, que ce soit des start-up comme Tambua Health qui utilisent l’apprentissage automatique pour aider les médecins à diagnostiquer et à traiter les maladies, ou des entrepreneurs comme Tunji, que j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer lorsque je suis allé à Lagos en 2017. Son entreprise, Gidi Mobile aide les étudiants à faibles revenus du Nigeria à accéder à l’apprentissage en ligne.

Légende : Sundar Pichai et Tunji Adegbesan, fondateur de Gidi Mobile, lors de la conférence Google pour le Nigeria en 2017.

De plus en plus souvent, on voit des innovations apparaître en Afrique, puis se répandre dans le monde entier. Par exemple, les Africains ont été parmi les premiers à accéder à l’internet par le biais du téléphone plutôt que de l’ordinateur. Autre exemple : le service de paiement mobile était omniprésent au Kenya avant d’être adopté dans le monde entier.

Cette dynamique ne fera que s’amplifier, puisque ce sont 300 millions de personnes qui seront connectées en Afrique au cours des cinq prochaines années. Beaucoup d’entre eux sont jeunes, créatifs et entreprenants, et ils sont prêts à innover et à saisir les opportunités dans toute cette région du monde.

C’est incroyable de voir le rythme auquel ce changement s’est produit en un temps si court et c’est formidable d’être partenaire de cette transformation. Depuis que nous avons ouvert nos premiers bureaux en Afrique, nous avons permis à 100 millions d’Africains d’accéder à l’internet pour la première fois et donné des outils numériques à des millions d’entreprises et de créateurs.

L’accent a été mis sur l’élargissement des possibilités grâce aux compétences numériques. En 2017, nous nous sommes engagés à aider 10 millions d’Africains à acquérir les compétences numériques dont ils ont besoin pour progresser dans leurs carrières et pour développer leurs entreprises. À ce jour, six millions de personnes ont bénéficié d’une formation. Nous avons également formé 80 000 développeurs de tous les pays d’Afrique et aidé plus de 80 start-up à lever des fonds de capital-risque au niveau mondial, créant ainsi des milliers d’emplois.

En 2018, nous avons ouvert un centre de recherche en intelligence artificielle à Accra. L’équipe se concentre sur la résolution de défis pertinents pour l’Afrique et le monde, comme l’utilisation de l’IA pour cartographier les bâtiments difficiles à détecter avec les outils traditionnels et l’ajout de 200 000 kilomètres de routes sur Google Maps.

Et nous continuons à nous développer afin de répondre aux besoins uniques de l’Afrique. Grâce à des produits comme Android Go et Files Go nous nous assurons que tout le monde puisse profiter d’une expérience optimale sur smartphone. Sur YouTube, nous soutenons les créateurs et les artistes africains par l’intermédiaire de notre fonds Black Voices.

Ce ne sont là que quelques exemples de la manière dont nous investissons et construisons pour l’Afrique. Nous savons que nous pouvons faire mieux pour permettre à un plus grand nombre d’Africains de bénéficier des avantages de la technologie.

Aujourd’hui, je suis donc heureux d’annoncer que nous prévoyons d’investir un milliard de dollars en Afrique sur cinq ans. Cette somme couvrira une série d’initiatives, allant de l’amélioration de la connectivité à l’investissement dans les start-up.

Ces investissements soutiendront la transformation numérique du continent dans quatre domaines clés :

Permettre un accès abordable et élaborer des produits pour chaque type d’utilisateur sur le continent africain.
Accompagner les entreprises dans leur transformation numérique.
Aider les entrepreneurs pour stimuler l’émergence des technologies de nouvelle génération.
Soutenir les organisations à but non lucratif qui s’efforcent d’améliorer les conditions de vie en Afrique.

Mais ces investissements, nous savons que nous ne pouvons pas les faire seuls. Nous sommes impatients de nous associer aux gouvernements, aux décideurs politiques, aux éducateurs, aux entrepreneurs et aux entreprises de ce continent. À l’heure où les Africains préparent la prochaine vague d’innovation, un champ immense de possibilités s’offre à nous. Merci de me donner la chance d’y participer.

Support for African startup founders looking to scale

Friday, October 1, 2021

Google for Startups100% of the cohort reported an increase in their confidence

Allan Rwakatungu, Xente

Angus Marjoribanks EnerGrow

Anilla Stephannie, Eleka Tech Ltd

Belinda Dongo, AFRONAT

Elohor Thomas, CodeLn

Eric Edze, Netsor

Esther Karwera, Akorion Company Limited (EzyAgric)

Favour Ozichukwu, Unlocking Women and Technology

Laila Abdul Rahman, Sabary Tours

Mark Drummond, Neural Sense

Ruyonga Daniel, Teheca

Tafi Mazikana, Vimbo Health

William Luyinda, EzyAgri

Zule Vuuren, LocumBase

startup.google.comAccelerator: AfricaStartup School,Black Founders Fund in Africa.

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How AI is making information more useful

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Today, there’s more information accessible at people’s fingertips than at any point in human history. And advances in artificial intelligence will radically transform the way we use that information, with the ability to uncover new insights that can help us both in our daily lives and in the ways we are able to tackle complex global challenges.

At our Search On livestream event today, we shared how we’re bringing the latest in AI to Google’s products, giving people new ways to search and explore information in more natural and intuitive ways.

Making multimodal search possible with MUMEarlier this year at Google I/O, we announced we’ve reached a critical milestone for understanding information with Multitask Unified Model, or MUM for short.

We’ve been experimenting with using MUM’s capabilities to make our products more helpful and enable entirely new ways to search. Today, we’re sharing an early look at what will be possible with MUM.

In the coming months, we’ll introduce a new way to search visually, with the ability to ask questions about what you see. Here are a couple of examples of what will be possible with MUM.

With this new capability, you can tap on the Lens icon when you’re looking at a picture of a shirt, and ask Google to find you the same pattern — but on another article of clothing, like socks. This helps when you’re looking for something that might be difficult to describe accurately with words alone. You could type “white floral Victorian socks,” but you might not find the exact pattern you’re looking for. By combining images and text into a single query, we’re making it easier to search visually and express your questions in more natural ways.

Some questions are even trickier: Your bike has a broken thingamajig, and you need some guidance on how to fix it. Instead of poring over catalogs of parts and then looking for a tutorial, the point-and-ask mode of searching will make it easier to find the exact moment in a video that can help.

Helping you explore with a redesigned Search page

We’re also announcing how we’re applying AI advances like MUM to redesign Google Search. These new features are the latest steps we’re taking to make searching more natural and intuitive.

First, we’re making it easier to explore and understand new topics with “Things to know.” Let’s say you want to decorate your apartment, and you’re interested in learning more about creating acrylic paintings.

If you search for “acrylic painting,” Google understands how people typically explore this topic, and shows the aspects people are likely to look at first. For example, we can identify more than 350 topics related to acrylic painting, and help you find the right path to take.

We’ll be launching this feature in the coming months. In the future, MUM will unlock deeper insights you might not have known to search for — like “how to make acrylic paintings with household items” — and connect you with content on the web that you wouldn’t have otherwise found.

Second, to help you further explore ideas, we’re making it easy to zoom in and out of a topic with new features to refine and broaden searches.

In this case, you can learn more about specific techniques, like puddle pouring, or art classes you can take. You can also broaden your search to see other related topics, like other painting methods and famous painters. These features will launch in the coming months.

Third, we’re making it easier to find visual inspiration with a newly designed, browsable results page. If puddle pouring caught your eye, just search for “pour painting ideas" to see a visually rich page full of ideas from across the web, with articles, images, videos and more that you can easily scroll through.

This new visual results page is designed for searches that are looking for inspiration, like “Halloween decorating ideas” or “indoor vertical garden ideas,” and you can try it today.

Get more from videos

We already use advanced AI systems to identify key moments in videos, like the winning shot in a basketball game, or steps in a recipe. Today, we’re taking this a step further, introducing a new experience that identifies related topics in a video, with links to easily dig deeper and learn more.

Using MUM, we can even show related topics that aren’t explicitly mentioned in the video, based on our advanced understanding of information in the video. In this example, while the video doesn’t say the words “macaroni penguin’s life story,” our systems understand that topics contained in the video relate to this topic, like how macaroni penguins find their family members and navigate predators. The first version of this feature will roll out in the coming weeks, and we’ll add more visual enhancements in the coming months.

Across all these MUM experiences, we look forward to helping people discover more web pages, videos, images and ideas that they may not have come across or otherwise searched for.

A more helpful Google

The updates we’re announcing today don’t end with MUM, though. We’re also making it easier to shop from the widest range of merchants, big and small, no matter what you’re looking for. And we’re helping people better evaluate the credibility of information they find online. Plus, for the moments that matter most, we’re finding new ways to help people get access to information and insights.

All this work not only helps people around the world, but creators, publishers and businesses as well. Every day, we send visitors to well over 100 million different websites, and every month, Google connects people with more than 120 million businesses that don't have websites, by enabling phone calls, driving directions and local foot traffic.

As we continue to build more useful products and push the boundaries of what it means to search, we look forward to helping people find the answers they’re looking for, and inspiring more questions along the way.

YouTube NextUp: Are you the next big thing on YouTube?

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Last year, creators on YouTube generated billions of views daily and earned millions of dollars via our revenue-sharing Partner Program. In addition to teaching individuals how to crochet flowers and apply the perfect lipstick, Africa's top creators also taught people how to have fun.

We believe that the next generation of successful singers, dancers, actors, producers, musicians, and make-up artists are already honing their skills on YouTube , and we want to see more of them take the next step in their YouTube careers and convert their video hobby into a profession or perhaps a small company.

YouTube NextUp was introduced in 2011 to help YouTube creators take their channel to the next level. Over 250 YouTube artists from 15 different countries have benefited from this initiative, which has helped them to enhance their channels and jumpstart a new stage of development on YouTube. From science enthusiasts like AsapSCIENCE , Marcus Butler, MegwinTV, to foodies like Laura Vitale, NextUp has continued to help selected creators become some of YouTube's brightest stars.

We’re thrilled to announce the expansion of the YouTube NextUp program to Sub Saharan Africa, beginning with Nigeria and South Africa. In 2021, 20 creators in Nigeria and South Africa will be selected for the development program, which offers:

A spot at a week-long YouTube creator Camp in which they’ll benefit from 1:1 mentoring and learn an array of production techniques from leading industry and YouTube experts
A $1,000 voucher for production equipment to help you make your video dreams a reality.
Personalized one-on-one support from the YouTube team until April 2022
Mentorship by YouTube NextUp grads, plus the opportunity to meet and work with other fast-rising creators.
The opportunity to become better connected with a special community of aspiring and talented content creators from around the world

https://events.withgoogle.com/nextup/

Posted by Addy Awofisayo, YouTube Content Partnerships, Sub Saharan Africa

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Celebrating our first YouTube Festival in Sub-Saharan Africa

Monday, August 23, 2021

The day's headline announcements included the introduction of YouTube Select and YouTube Audio Ads, which are designed to help marketers target individuals interested in particular content categories and those who use YouTube for ambient listening.

YouTube Select
YouTube Select allows advertisers to place their ads alongside curated content that is most relevant to their brand. Let’s say you manage a smartphone brand aimed at tech savvy millennials. You could have your ads play alongside tech review content, for example.

YouTube’s most popular and relevant content, based on topic, audience, or moment is curated into packages called Lineups. Lineups are designed to achieve popularity, with a focus on top categories and creators across sports, broadcast, beauty and fashion, and popular content.

Lineups give advertisers the confidence that the right people are seeing their ads at the right time. Coupled with the existing YouTube targeting capabilities that advertisers know and use every day, ads can be hyper-personalised.

Audio Ads
Audio is a content format on the rise with people spending 18 hours a week on average listening to music — and 89% of them do so through on-demand streaming. Now advertisers have a new way of reaching these audiences on YouTube, the most popular destination for streaming music.

YouTube Audio Ads is a new format that allows advertisers to reach people using YouTube in the background and those on the free version of YouTube Music. 15-second, non-skippable ads are currently available with more formats coming soon.

Advertisers who have tried it are already seeing great success. More than 75% of measured campaigns are driving a significant lift in brand awareness with an audience that is highly engaged.

This is My YouTubeTo shine a spotlight on creators, the festival featured an episode of This is My YouTube. The segment invites advertisers to experience YouTube through the eyes of YouTube creators. We find out what they laugh at, who they cry with, learn from, and escape to — and crucially, how they work with brands to bring relevant products and messaging to their followers.

Content creators play a significant role in influencing purchase behaviour. Research shows that conversions from interest to purchase increase 133% with positive reviews for South African consumers.

Watch our first episode of This is My YouTube with South African YouTube creators Kay Ngonyama and Snikiwe Mhlongo — who, combined, have over 250,000 subscribers.

YouTube + TV
Festival attendees also learned about how YouTube and TV work better together. Today, people watch video content across devices, through different platforms, any time, and anywhere. This change requires advertisers to reach their audiences beyond TV.

Planning on both TV and YouTube provides an opportunity for advertisers to extend their reach even further and drive incremental reach. This is because the consumer journey is not linear. It involves a multitude of touchpoints as a consumer considers a product or service.

While TV has a large reach, research shows that when brands combine both TV and digital as part of their marketing strategy, the return on investment is much larger than the sum of just one medium.

With this consideration, when advertisers craft messaging across both mediums, they’re able to be exactly where their consumers are as they navigate the non-linear consumer journey.

Interestingly, we have found that YouTube as an advertising medium allows advertisers to get TV’s large reach at a much lower cost. And as audiences in Africa, and around the world, consume more content on the platform, why not leverage this screentime as a brand?

A new era for advertising
As the go-to platform for video streaming, YouTube offers an array of curated content for diverse groups of people. Our audience solutions offer a variety of ways for advertisers to reach their valuable audiences.

If you would like to find out more about these YouTube offers, watch the full festival on-demand below.

Invitation to apply for the Developers for Africa event

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

CMS Africa first Developers For Africa event in April 2021 we got together with top open source CMS experts from Google, Joomla!, WordPress, Typo3, CMS Africa, and Drupal and developers from all over the continent. As a result, several project teams are already working with Google to fine tune their project proposals for funding applications. We invite you to read the post-event report to learn more.

CMS Africadfa.cmsafrica.org/apply#DFA2021

Posted by Andrey Lipattsev, CMS Partnerships EMEA lead

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New safety and digital wellbeing options for younger people on YouTube and YouTube Kids

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Today, we're announcing additional protections for people under 18 on YouTube and YouTube Kids.
Over the years, we’ve made investments to protect kids and families, such as launching a dedicated kids app, introducing new data practices for children’s content, providing more age-appropriate experiences, and giving families more choice with supervised accounts. Today, we're announcing additional protections for people under 18 on YouTube and YouTube Kids.

Updating default privacy settings for younger people
In the coming weeks, we’ll gradually start adjusting the default upload setting to the most private option available for users ages 13-17 on YouTube. With private uploads, content can only be seen by the user and whomever they choose. We want to help younger users make informed decisions about their online footprint and digital privacy, including encouraging them to make an intentional choice if they’d like to make their content public. If the user would like to make their content public, they can change the default upload visibility setting and we’ll provide reminders indicating who can see their video.
Making digital wellbeing features more prominent
We want to give younger users the tools they need to understand their use of technology. In addition to our suite of digital well-being tools, we’ll be turning take a break and bedtime reminders on by default for all users ages 13-17 on YouTube. We’ll also be turning autoplay off by default for these users. If a user decides these aren’t the right digital well-being features for them, they can change their default settings.

We’ll also be adding an autoplay option on YouTube Kids and turning autoplay off by default in the app. Whether you’re driving on a roadtrip with your kids or listening to nursery rhymes together while cooking dinner, we want to empower parents to be able to choose an autoplay setting that’s right for their family. In the coming months, we’ll also be launching additional parental controls in the YouTube Kids app, including the ability for a parent to choose a “locked” default autoplay setting.

Providing safeguards and education about commercial content
We’re also making changes to how we treat commercial content for kids and families. We've never allowed paid product placements in YouTube Kids, our destination for younger kids. In the coming weeks, we’ll also begin to remove overly commercial content from YouTube Kids, such as a video that only focuses on product packaging or directly encourages children to spend money.

On YouTube, we recently updated the disclosures that appear on “made for kids” content or supervised accounts on YouTube when a creator identifies that their video contains paid promotions. Developed in collaboration with child development experts, the disclosures appear in easy-to-understand text and link to a kid-friendly animated video, which provides additional information on paid product placements. We’ve also provided a parent guide which suggests ways for parents to help children understand content they may see on YouTube, including paid product promotions.

We’re introducing these new safety and digital wellbeing options as part of our ongoing efforts to create age-appropriate experiences for young people on YouTube and YouTube Kids. With young people watching online videos to broaden their horizons and expand their learning experiences, we're invested in being the best version of YouTube and YouTube Kids we can be. Young people are our future, and we want to empower them the best we can.

Posted by James Beser, Director of Product Management, Kids and FamilyRead on the official YouTube blog

Giving kids and teens a safer experience online

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Cross-posted from the Keyword blog
We're committed to building products that are secure by default, private by design, and that put people in control. And while our policies don’t allow kids under 13 to create a standard Google account, we’ve worked hard to design enriching product experiences specifically for them, teens, and families. Through Family Link, we allow parents to set up supervised accounts for their children, set screen time limits, and more. Our Be Internet Awesome digital literacy program helps kids learn how to be safe and engaged digital citizens; and our dedicated YouTube Kids app, Kids Space and teacher approved apps in Play offer experiences that are customized for younger audiences.

Technology has helped kids and teens during the pandemic stay in school through lockdowns and maintain connections with family and friends. As kids and teens spend more time online, parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightly concerned about how to keep them safe. We engage with these groups regularly, and share these concerns.

Some countries are implementing regulations in this area, and as we comply with these regulations, we’re looking at ways to develop consistent product experiences and user controls for kids and teens globally. Today, we’re announcing a variety of new policies and updates:

Giving minors more control over their digital footprint
While we already provide a range of removal options for people using Google Search, children are at particular risk when it comes to controlling their imagery on the internet. In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce a new policy that enables anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from Google Image results. Of course, removing an image from Search doesn’t remove it from the web, but we believe this change will help give young people more control of their images online.

Tailoring product experiences for kids and teens
Some of our most popular products help kids and teens explore their interests, learn more about the world, and connect with friends. We’re committed to constantly making these experiences safer for them. That’s why in the coming weeks and months we're going to make a number of changes to Google Accounts for people under 18:

YouTube: We’re going to change the default upload setting to the most private option available for teens ages 13-17. In addition we’ll more prominently surface digital wellbeing features, and provide safeguards and education about commercial content. Learn more about these changes here.
Search: We have a range of systems, tools, and policies that are designed to help people discover content from across the web while not surprising them with mature content they haven’t searched for. One of the protections we offer is SafeSearch, which helps filter out explicit results when enabled and is already on by default for all signed-in users under 13 who have accounts managed by Family Link. In the coming months, we’ll turn SafeSearch on for existing users under 18 and make this the default setting for teens setting up new accounts.
Assistant: We’re always working to prevent mature content from surfacing during a child’s experience with Google Assistant on shared devices, and in the coming months we’ll be introducing new default protections. For example, we will apply our SafeSearch technology to the web browser on smart displays.
Location History: Location History is a Google account setting that helps make our products more useful. It's already off by default for all accounts, and children with supervised accounts don’t have the option of turning Location History on. Taking this a step further, we’ll soon extend this to users under the age of 18 globally, meaning that Location History will remain off (without the option to turn it on).
Play: Building on efforts like content ratings, and our "Teacher-approved apps" for quality kids content, we're launching a new safety section that will let parents know which apps follow our Families policies. Apps will be required to disclose how they use the data they collect in greater detail, making it easier for parents to decide if the app is right for their child before they download it.
Google Workspace for Education: As we recently announced, we’re making it much easier for administrators to tailor experiences for their users based on age (such as restricting student activity on YouTube). And to make web browsing safer, K-12 institutions will have SafeSearch technology enabled by default, while switching to Guest Mode and Incognito Mode for web browsing will be turned off by default.

New advertising changes
We’ll be expanding safeguards to prevent age-sensitive ad categories from being shown to teens, and we will block ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of people under 18. We’ll start rolling out these updates across our products globally over the coming months. Our goal is to ensure we’re providing additional protections and delivering age-appropriate experiences for ads on Google.

New digital wellbeing tools
In Family Link, parents can set screen time limits and reminders for their kids’ supervised devices. And, on Assistant-enabled smart devices, we give parents control through Digital Wellbeing tools available in the Google Home app. In the coming months, we’ll roll out new Digital Wellbeing filters that allow people to block news, podcasts, and access to webpages on Assistant-enabled smart devices.

On YouTube, we’ll turn on take a break and bedtime reminders and turn off autoplay for users under 18. And, on YouTube Kids we’ll add an autoplay option and turn it off by default to empower parents to make the right choice for their families.
Improving how we communicate our data practices to kids and teens
Data plays an important role in making our products functional and helpful. It’s our job to make it easy for kids and teens to understand what data is being collected, why, and how it is used. Based on research, we’re developing engaging, easy-to-understand materials for young people and their parents to help them better understand our data practices. These resources will begin to roll out globally in the coming months.

Transparency Resources: The Family Link Privacy Guide for Children and Teens and the Teen Privacy Guide

Ongoing work and engagement

Posted by Mindy Brooks, General Manager, Kids and Families

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Meet the 22 news innovators selected from the 2021 GNI Middle East, Turkey and Africa challenge

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

During a 14-year career as a journalist, Dina Aboughazala reported on issues impacting people's lives across the Middle East. But she found that many existing news services concentrated on what was happening in big cities, while lesser-known areas were often ignored. To highlight undiscovered voices with interesting stories to tell, last year Aboughazala started the journalism platform Egab.

Egab, which connects journalists from the Middle East and Africa to international media outlets, is one of 22 successful recipients for the Google News Initiative’s second Middle East, Turkey and Africa Innovation Challenge.

It will use the funding to build a platform for contributions. “This means we can empower more local journalists across the Middle East and Africa to tell diverse stories about their communities to global audiences: stories that defy stereotypes, represent our part of the world more fairly and engage more audiences,” Aboughazala says. “We will now be able to do that at a larger scale through the online platform we will be building.”

We launched an open call for applications in February and received 329 applications from 35 countries. A rigorous review, a round of interviews and a final jury selection process followed.

Today, we’re announcing $2.1 million in funding to projects and initiatives in 14 different countries. Recipients include startups and online-only media platforms alongside some of the bigger names in news across the region, and cover topics ranging from audience development to virtual reality storytelling. We placed an emphasis on projects that reflect and demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the news industry.
Here are just a few of the recipients (you can find the full list on our website):

Messenger Reader Revenue: The Standard Group in Kenya is going to integrate bots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) onto a WhatsApp number so that its audience can prompt and interact with it to access news. Via a subscription, the uniquely curated content will feature categories such as farming and investigations.
The Citizen Bulletin: Zimbabwe Centre for Media and Information Literacy is building a loyal audience around hyperlocal journalism. The project is an open-source WhatsApp bot for news distribution and audience engagement.
Habari RDC: Habari Streaming is a mobile application in the Democratic Republic of Congo that offers subscriptions to videos and podcasts. In a plan to diversify their source of income, Habari RDC created a user experience platform that provides paid content to its users.
263Chat: Radio is the most accessible medium for Zimbabweans. To reach new audiences, 263Chat has established a podcast network to provide an alternative media source.Eco-Nai+: Nigeria’s first digital geo-journalism platform providing access to interactive geo-data through web and mobile applications.
Eco-Nai+: developed by Richmond Hill Media Limited (Ripples Nigeria), will host environmental data such as on drought, rainfall and erosion, while carefully tracking and making changes to environmental phenomena to help track climate change.

We’ll be following their progress alongside the previous recipients who are already impacting the news ecosystem with initiatives that increase reader engagement and make for a more sustainable future of news.

Africa Blog

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Applications open for the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Class 7

Supporting Journalism in Africa

Meet The #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022

Notre investissement d’un milliard de dollars dans la transformation numérique de l’Afrique

Support for African startup founders looking to scale

How AI is making information more useful

YouTube NextUp: Are you the next big thing on YouTube?

Celebrating our first YouTube Festival in Sub-Saharan Africa

Invitation to apply for the Developers for Africa event

New safety and digital wellbeing options for younger people on YouTube and YouTube Kids

Giving kids and teens a safer experience online

Meet the 22 news innovators selected from the 2021 GNI Middle East, Turkey and Africa challenge

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