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TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 26 January 2016
Google will pay Mumbai;
$140M in back
taxes in Britain Travelers log on as Google starts train station Wi-Fi
MICHAEL LIEDTKE MUMBAI, India (AP) — A volunteer from Google Inc. helps Indian travellers log on to a free WiFi service at Mumbai Cen-
AP Technology Writer Google Inc. has begun of- tral Train Station in Mumbai, India. Google Inc. has begun offering free WiFi to Mumbai train pas-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — fering free Wi-Fi to Mumbai sengers in hopes of boosting its role in the Indian market.
Google will pay about train passengers in hopes
$140 million in British back of boosting its role in the In- (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
taxes in a concession driv- dian market.
en by a shift in how the In- Giggling groups of stu- Google, Facebook and on. Fewer than 5 percent versify India’s user base,
ternet company will mea- dents, bored commuters Microsoft have set sights of the 50 million or so small given that less than a third
sure its success in the Unit- and snack-shop vendors on expanding in the Indi- businesses in India have a of Internet users in India are
ed Kingdom. The amount were all logging on over an market. Online retailers web page. women, and has been up-
translates into 130 million the weekend at Mumbai Amazon and eBay have With more than 23 million grading its services in Hindi
pounds. Central Train Station, the also launched services in people riding Indian rail- and other languages spo-
The accord disclosed this first of 400 stations the com- the country. ways every day, Google ken across India.
weekend comes amid pany plans to eventually Indian also has home- said free Internet in train “Most of India is still not on-
mounting criticism that reach with the service. grown online commerce stations will give high-speed line,” Google CEO Sundar
Google and other ma- “If my train is leaving, and companies but small busi- access that many can’t Pichai told reporters last
jor U.S. companies have I need to search, don’t nesses are still catching afford. It also hopes to di- month in New Delhi.q
been scrimping on their tax know where to go, then im-
bills with a variety of ac- mediately I will get the an-
counting maneuvers that swer,” student Divya Patel
have rankled governments said excitedly while waiting
around the world. for a train to her hometown
In the United Kingdom, of Ahmedabad in the west-
for instance, Google has ern state of Gujarat. “This is
been facing accusations very good, and good for
that it hasn’t been paying everyone.”
its fair share of taxes in a Free Wi-Fi is rare across In-
country that represents its dia. Most of the country’s
second largest market out- 300 million Internet users
side the U.S. Similar com- pay for personal access
plaints have been leveled and often rely on slow-
against at Facebook, Am- loading smartphone con-
azon.com and Starbucks in nectivity.
the U.K. With a massive 1.25 billion
Google has been minimiz- population in India, includ-
ing its tax bill for years in the ing 6 million new Internet
U.K. by keeping its head- users every month, Silicon
quarters in Ireland, where Valley tech giants such as
rates are lower. The strat-
egy has helped Google Twitter says 4 executives leaving the company
boost its profits and its stock
price and fatten its bank NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter Chief Technology Officer acter limits on texts at that messaging services. Twitter
accounts. Google and its says that four executives Adam Messinger will also time. Those texting limits on may be looking to expand
recently formed parent are leaving the company. be assuming some respon- phones faded away sever- beyond its 140 character
company, Alphabet Inc., CEO Jack Dorsey posted a sibilities. al years ago as the advent tweets in a bid to make its
have about $73 billion in statement to the microb- After a long streak of robust of smartphones enabled service more appealing to
cash. logging service saying that growth that turned it into people to use other Internet wider audience.q
The tax-reduction tactics Alex Roetter, Skip Schipper, one of the Internet’s hot-
spurred a six-year inquiry Katie Stanton and Kevin test companies, Twitter’s
into Google’s practices by Weil are exiting the com- growth has slowed dra-
an arm of the British gov- pany. matically during the past
ernment, Her Majesty’s Dorsey said he wanted to year-and-half to leave the
Revenue and Customs, or address employees later San Francisco-based com-
HMRC. this week, but issued a pany scrambling to catch
Although Google insists it statement due to ‘inaccu- up with social networking
never broke any laws, the rate press rumors’ about leader Facebook and its
company says it agreed the departures. 1.5 billion users.
with the HRMC on a Roetter served as senior Twitter Inc.’s malaise result-
change that reflects the vice president of engineer- ed in the departure of Dick
“size and scope” of its U.K. ing, Schipper was vice Costolo as the company’s
operations. president of human re- CEO last July and ushered
The accounting switch, ret- sources, Stanton was vice in the return of Dorsey, who
roactive to 2005, requires president of social media had been ousted as the
Google to base its U.K. tax and Weil was senior vice company’s leader in 2008.
bill on ad revenue gener- president of product. Dorsey helped invent Twit-
ated in the country instead Dorsey said that Chief ter in 2006 and imposed a
of just profit.q Operating Officer Adam 140-character limit on mes-
Bain would be taking on sages so the service would
some additional responsi- be easy to use on cell-
bilities on an interim basis. phones that had 160-char-
