Google Africa marked ten years since it was established through a celebratory event in Johannesburg. While employees and partners took some time to reflect on a decade gone by, there was also an emphasis on the company's direction and influence going forward.

Luke Mckend, Country Director at Google South Africa, said his ongoing reflections at the ten year milestone tell a story of enormous change.

"Things have changed fundamentally. Basically everything went mobile. Everybody talked about everything going mobile for a long time though from about 2009 and then it actually happened. It happened far more quickly than we had anticipated. When we were projecting when there were going to be more mobile search queries on Google than desktop queries in South Africa, we were really thinking of 2016 but it happened far more quickly - somewhere in 2015. This was way faster than any one of the mature internet economies. It was faster than the US and the UK. It was pretty much faster than everywhere else, except maybe for places like Nigeria because there were only mobile phones there and that was the only way to get online."

Mckend added that the cost of internet use has also been reduced significantly over the last ten years which has led to an increase in the use of Google Products such as YouTube, Google Maps and Google Search which has grown over 300% between 2010 and 2017 - a rate double the growth worldwide over the same period.

"Partners like the SABC are uploading full episodes of soapies with each episode reaching tens of thousands and achieving hundreds of thousands of views in aggregate. This was simply not possible four or five years ago. It is not just the SABC. It is also creators like Suzelle DIY. What used to happen in the past is that you would be on TV first and then have a spinoff that would end up on the internet. Now if you are Suzelle DIY, you are online first and your spinoff is on TV. I think that is pretty cool as YouTube has become a platform for talented Africans to export and it has given us a window to the world."

The next ten years

Bunmi Banjo, Growth Engine and Country Lead for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google believes the announcement made by CEO Sundar Pichai in Nigeria in July that the company would train ten million Africans over the next five years in digital skills is a prime example of how the company is preparing for the next ten years.

"That announcement actually came as a result of the work we have been doing prior to that in Africa. For example, in April last year we had committed to train a million people across the continent. Our objective then and now remains the same, and that is to help Africans take advantage of the web and to become active players in the world's digital economy."

Banjo revealed that 97% of the people who have taken part in the Google Training Programme so far, have done so in person across 29 African countries. Half of the participants are women.

"We also measure the impact of the programme. There is no point in doing this if we are not actually seeing the transformation that we require. Ten percent of job seekers report getting a job within three months and thirteen percent of the business we train report hiring someone within three months - on average they hire two people. Sixteen percent of the individuals report starting their own business within three months of training."