Google Has Bigger Plans For India; Acquires Hugely Popular Train Tracking Indian App
Google has yet again piqued its interest in the Indian subcontinent by acquiring Sigmoid Labs, the company behind India’s most popular train tracking app ‘Where Is My Train.’
The app has 10 million registered users and helps Indians in live tracking trains’ status. The app also offers the facility to purchase tickets by making online payment. India has a vast railway network with nearly 14,000 trains operating on a daily basis across the country.
‘Where Is My Train’ is an Android app that has the facility to work without internet. The app supports eight different languages and has VC backed companies such as RailYatri and iXigo backing it.
The app’s official website announced the acquisition without disclosing the deal amount. However, the Economic Times has reported that Google landed the deal by paying $30-$40 million. The app, previously, also garnered interest from Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker company.
Google has said that the app will continue functioning normally thus indicating no plans of shutting it down for now.
The search giant’s acquisition of the app opens speculations about the company’s plans for India and how it would use the app. There are possibilities that Google could integrate the app’s functionality in Google Maps.
This isn’t the first time when Google has shown its interest in establishing itself in India. Earlier, the company has launched an on-demand app named Google Areo, a mobile payment app named Google Pay and Neighbourly, a Q&A app for sharing local knowledge.
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