Google AdWords Now Available in Malay

Kuala Lumpur, 17th April 2014: Google’s online advertising platform, AdWords, is now available in Malay. That means advertisers can now target keywords in the Malay language when users search for them on Google Search or visit relevant websites.

The AdWords user interface is also now available in Malay to individuals, businesses and agencies managing AdWords campaigns.

AdWords helps businesses grow and reach new customers by serving online ads to potential customers who are searching for products or services, or consuming content on websites or mobile devices. AdWords keyword targeting lets advertisers select a list of words that are related to their business and serve relevant and helpful ads around the Web.

 (L) Sajith Sivanandan, Country Head, Google Malaysia and Matthew Zaheen, Head of Marketing, Google Malaysia (R), at the announcement of Google AdWords in Malay today.

For the majority of Malaysians -- around 60 per cent of the population, the Malay language is their primary language. In the region, there are approximately 40 million native speakers of the Malay language and worldwide over 220 million speak the language. The language itself has grown and expanded: from the regional lingua franca 600-years ago, the Malay lexicon has grown to around 83,000 words today.

There are an estimated 700,000 small-medium businesses in Malaysia, but only around 15 per cent are online today. With close to 20 million Internet users from a population of 29 million, coupled with more than 35 per cent smartphone penetration today, there is tremendous potential for businesses that move to address this gap.

With the launch of AdWords in Malay, advertisers big and small can now take advantage of keywords that the majority of Malaysians use to experience the Web. More than half of the Malaysian online population prefer to consume their daily content online -- that’s more than traditional print and broadcast combined.

“AdWords in Malay can help businesses expand their reach among native speakers in the language they are most comfortable with online,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Google Malaysia Country Manager.

“One of our main motivations making AdWords available in Malay is to help small-medium businesses grow their reach and become more discoverable through online advertising. We hope to have even more of these businesses come online and market themselves online.”

For more information on AdWords, visit google.com.my/adwords.