Google is to expand a mass-market advertising campaign for
its cloud-based office software services beyond the US
today.
The "Gone Google" campaign, which includes the UK, France,
Canada, Australia and Japan, is aimed at luring businesses away
from traditional office software supplied by Microsoft and IBM.
The US campaign, which started in August, features
advertisements in major online and print publications as well as
billboards at airports and train stations in various cities,
according to
reports.
Google will attempt to persuade more businesses to switch to the
cloud-based software-as-a-service model.
The internet firm claims to have over two million business users
of Google Apps, but has not disclosed how many are paying
customers.
Larger businesses pay £50 a year for Google Apps, but the
service is free to businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
The firm claims there are 20 million active users of Google
Apps, but that number includes students who use the free version
Google provides to universities.
The expansion of Google's advertising campaign, which is due to
run for the rest of the year, comes as rivals IBM and Microsoft
step up competition in the cloud with online versions of their
software.