Louisville is getting a technology prize package valued at $50,000 for its success in encouraging businesses to take advantage of websites and other online opportunities.
Metro Government is one of three winners of the national Get Your Business Online City Challenge, which is jointly sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and
Google. The award includes 200
Samsung Chromebooks\ that will be given to qualifying small business loan applicants and city community centers.
More than 150 cities competed in the
City Challenge, a program launched in June 2013 in which cities formed partnerships to try to get businesses to post online information.
The
Louisville team helped get businesses online through integration into the city's digital program. Partnerships were formed with local business associations and community groups to promote the program to thousands of business owners. In addition, the challenge helped more than 100 Louisville business owners create, at no cost, a Google-plus page so their businesses would appear in Google search results and on Google Maps.
"This challenge provided a fun, creative way for us to encourage businesses to succeed in a digital world," Mayor Greg Fischer said Thursday.
Soo Young Kim, head of Google's Get
Your Business Online Program, noted that in the last three years, businesses that make use of the Web are growing 40 percent faster than those that don't. "Yet, 55 percent of America's businesses don't have a website," Soo said, adding that cities like Louisville are making strides in helping to get businesses online.
The other two cities receiving recognition for success in the online business competition were Garland, Texas, and Revere, Mass.
Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089. Follow him on Twitter at
@sheldonshafer.
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