Google Workspace Hikes Service Charges, Impact Felt By 1000s of MSMEs in India

New Delhi, August 17: Google Inc, one of the largest digital service providers in the world, has hiked up the price for its various services such as Google Workspace. And the MSME of India is feeling the heat of it now that companies will have to pay upto 4 times the original price to avail the services.

On Wednesday, Vishal Prakash Shah, CEO of Synersoft Technologies, on behalf of several MSMEs, sent an open letter to Google's Apex Executive to raise the concern stemming due to its latest policy changes. The letter has also been copied to the Competition Commission of India, Ministry of MSMEs, IT and Broadcasting, Science and Technology, Industry and Commerce, and Finance.

Mr. Shah has said that in less than a year, Google has raised the price of some of its services without making an official announcement regarding the same. He believes that with such drastic changes, Indian MSMEs will be forced to pay an additional Rs. 1500Cr to Rs. 5000Cr yearly to continue to avail Google's services.

Mr. Shah explained that Google announced rebranding G-Suite to Google Workspace with specific policy changes which states additional 100 GB storage is no longer available as they need to fit the "Business Standard" category, which has a minimum storage of 2 TB and costs INR 10,100 per year per user. Google further stated that if a business needs more than 30 GB storage in a single account, they must upgrade all the accounts to 2 TB storage which led them to pay 400% higher price. Additionally, Google has raised the exit barrier, which has made it more difficult for businesses to transfer their data to a different service provider.

In an interview with Hans India, Mr. Shah said that in certain cases, entrepreneurs have been left embarrassed as their email began bouncing back in case they did not purchase additional storage space. He also quickly pointed out that in a scenario when a person is unable to expand the Gmail storage capacity without a flexible payment plan, an entrepreneur is vulnerable to losing any business opportunity that may come across in the electronic mail.

In his open letter to Google, Mr. Shah has said, "Google knows that MSMEs like us can't have data of 100 TB (50 users with 2 TB each), so we will not be able to use it. So, it does not need to provision 100 TB on its cloud and can still charge for 100 TB… Imagine the situation. If I did not agree to upgrade all accounts, the space would be immediately shrunk back to 30 GB from 130 GB, stopping my business. In today's time, business stops as emails stop."

Mr. Shah said that he came across the issue a little over 8 months ago through his clients. His company Synersoft has an IT product called BLACKbox which helps MSMEs to save IT Software and Hardware cost for MSMEs. Several of his clients, composed of manufacturers in sectors such as hardware, textile, are now in a delicate situation where they have to spend more revenue on cloud services, and pay extra to continue to avail Gmail services, irrespective of the company's income.

In his open letter, titled "Dear Google, This Is Not Okay", he says, "We are MSMEs. We are the backbone of this country. We manage and flourish our businesses with scarce resources and sincere hard work. We contribute significantly to the GDP of our country. We create significant employment for our fellow citizens. We earn significant foreign exchange for our country. We honestly pay taxes for the development of our country. We are a big market for you."

In 2020, Google had hiked up its prices from Rs. 1,500 per person to Rs. 2,500 per person for its Gmail service. Mr. Shah has suggested that the company may introduce additional storage space options in the "Business Starter" category, making it flexible for entrepreneurs to customize the plan differently for each of its employees.

The suggestion in the letter says, "Or revoke the policy forcing upgrade for all users in case one user needs more storage. It is a coercive practice to force the customers to upgrade for all users when the upgrade requirement is only for one user… If you don't want to do the above, cooperate with your customers who want to migrate. It is monopolistic to keep a high exit barrier."

The founder of Synersoft has also alleged that the concerned MSMEs have not been able to approach Google representatives directly and instead have to deal with Chat Box or automated correspondence. He further said that to exit from Google and choose a different service provider, the process is rather lengthy and cumbersome.

"If I want to download all my emails to another service provider, Google has set a policy that I cannot download them continuously. It will allow a limited number of emails every hour and then wait for the next cycle. So, in this way, it can take upto x number of days, weeks or even months for an entrepreneur to download and transfer all their mail," he added.