Google Wants Small Businesses to Pay Up

Google says it’s time for longtime small business users to pay up

When Google told some small businesses in January that they would no longer be able to use personalized email services and other workplace apps for free, Richard J. Dalton Jr., a longtime user who runs a school trial, balked. It felt like an unfulfilled promise. – preparation company in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“Basically, they force us to switch to something paid after they hook us up with this free service,” said Dalton, who first set up a Google work email for his business, Your Score Booster, in 2008.

 

Google said long-time users of what it calls its free legacy edition of G Suite, which includes email and apps like Docs and Calendar, had to start paying a monthly charge, usually around $6 for each email address. commercial electronic. Companies that do not voluntarily switch to a paid service before June 27 will be automatically moved to one. If they don’t pay by August 1, their accounts will be suspended.

 

While the cost of the paid service is more of a nuisance than a financial blow, small business owners affected by the change say they’ve been disappointed by how clumsy Google has handled the process. They can’t help but feel that a giant company with billions of dollars in profits is squeezing small businesses, some of the first small businesses to use Google apps for work, for just a little bit of money.

 

“I found it unnecessarily petty,” said Patrick Gant, owner of Think It Creative, a marketing consultancy in Ottawa. “It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who got something for free for a long time and is now being told they have to pay for it. But there was a promise that was made. That is what forced me to make the decision to choose Google over other alternatives.”

 

Google’s decision to charge organizations that have used its apps for free is another example of its seeking ways to get more money from its existing business, similar to how it has sometimes put four ads at the top of results. search instead of three and has jammed more commercials into YouTube videos. In recent years, Google has put more effort into selling software subscriptions to businesses and has competed more directly with Microsoft, whose Word and Excel programs rule the market.

 

After several longtime users complained about the switch to a paid service, the initial May 1 deadline was pushed back. Google also said that people who use old accounts for personal rather than business reasons could continue to do so for free.

 

But some business owners said that while they were pondering whether to pay Google or abandon their services, they had a hard time contacting customer service. With the deadline approaching, six small business owners who spoke to The New York Times criticized what they said were confusing and sometimes hesitant communications about the service change.

 

“I don’t care if they kick us out,” said Samad Sajanlal, owner of Supreme Equipment Company, which offers software consulting and other technology services in McKinney, Texas. “But don’t give us an unrealistic deadline to look at an alternative while you’re still deciding if you really want to kick us out in the first place.”

 

Google said the free edition didn’t include customer support, but it did give users multiple ways to contact the company for help with their transition.

 

Google launched Gmail in 2004 and business apps like Docs and Sheets two years later. The search giant was eager for startups and mom-and-pop stores to adopt its work software, so it offered the services for free and allowed companies to bring custom domains that matched their small business names to Gmail.

 

While it was still testing the apps, it even told business owners that the products would be free for life, though Google says that all along, the terms of service for its business software stated that the company could suspend or cancel the offer in the future. . Google stopped new free registrations in December 2012, but continued to support accounts from what became known as the free legacy edition of G Suite.

 

In 2020, G Suite was renamed Google Workspace. The vast majority of people (the company says it has more than three billion total users) use a free version of Workspace. More than seven million organizations or individuals pay for versions with additional tools and customer support, up from six million in 2020. The number of users still using the free legacy version from years ago has grown into the thousands, one person said. familiar with counting. who requested anonymity because the person was not allowed to publicly reveal those numbers.

 

“We’re here to help our customers with this transition, including deep discounts on Google Workspace subscriptions,” Katie Wattie, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement. “Moving to a Google Workspace subscription can be done in just a few clicks.”

 

Dalton, who helps Canadian students get into American universities, said Google’s forced updates came at a bad time. The coronavirus pandemic was devastating to his business, he said. Places regularly canceled tests, some colleges suspended testing requirements, and fewer students sought preparation services.

 

From April 2020 to March 2021, business revenue was almost halved. Sales fell another 20 percent the following year. Things have started to pick up in recent months, but Your Score Booster still lags behind its pre-pandemic performance.

 

“At this point, I’m focused on getting my business back on its feet,” Dalton said. “The last thing I want to do is change a service.” So he asked his 11 part-timers to start using their personal email addresses for work and upgraded the remaining two accounts to the cheaper version of Google Workspace.

 

Mr. Gant’s business is a one-man shop, and he had been using free Gmail since 2004. He said it wasn’t about the money. His problem was the annoyance. He had to decide whether to continue using Google or find another option.

 

Mr. Gant is still considering whether to switch to Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCloud or ProtonMail, or stick with Google. He will decide what to do at the end of the month. Microsoft would cost you 100 Canadian dollars a year. Apple would cost $50 and Proton Mail $160. Google would give you three months free and then charge the same amount as Apple for a year. The following year, Google’s price would double.

 

Mr. Sajanlal, the sole employee of his business, signed up for Gmail’s business service in 2009. Years later, he added his brother-in-law, Mesam Jiwani, to his G Suite account when he started his own business. That company, Fast Payment Systems, has been helping small businesses in states like Texas and New York process credit card payments since 2020.

 

When Mr. Sajanlal told Mr. Jiwani that Google would start charging for each of his email addresses, Mr. Jiwani said, “Are you serious? Are they going to start scamming us?

 

Mr. Jiwani said he stored transaction data for his 3,000 customers in Google Drive, so he started paying for the company’s services, though he is considering switching to software provider Zoho. Mr. Sajanlal walked away from Google in March and set up his business emails on a server hosted by Nextcloud.

 

Stian Oksavik, who runs a side business called BeyondBits in Loxahatchee, Fla., which installs computer networks for clients, switched to Apple’s iCloud service, which he already had access to as part of an existing subscription package.

 

“It was less about the amount they charge and more about the fact that they changed the rules,” Oksavik said. “They could change the rules again at any time.”

For More Latest Updates Click Here