American multinational technology company Google has introduced an option for small businesses to upgrade their Gmail accounts for greater calendaring, video chat and email newsletter functionalities.
Google Workspace Individual, which starts at $7.99 monthly includes a temporary $2 discount, adds to the company’s expanding efforts to have users subscribe to some of its services like YouTube and Google photos in exchange for more features that are available for free. Subscription sales could help Google grow revenue beyond advertising.
The small-business offering compares with existing plans aimed at larger organizations that have their own websites to use in email addresses.
Javier Soltero, vice president for Google Workspace, stated that his unit had been informally saving photos of business cards or work vehicles mentioning an “@Gmail.com” address to “remind ourselves of the sheer number of people using our consumer products to run their businesses.”
The upgrade for appointment booking, newsletter production, and other tools will be able to provide a more professional experience to clients. Workspace Individual will launch soon in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan.
Google has made other changes to Workspace. Big businesses will be able to control the encryption of their files on Google Drive for the first time and prevent Google from unlocking them. All users now have access to Google Chat, the company’s successor to the instant-message program Google Hangouts.
For the first time in years, free and paid users alike will have the same set of chat and email services, providing a common foundation that makes it simpler to develop new features, Mr.Soltero said.
