Google Opens China; Hiring In Japan
Kai-Fu Lee and company now have new office space available to them in China. Meanwhile, Google has begun searching for more engineers in Japan to work on new mobile technologies.
The People’s Daily Online celebrated 85 years of the Communist Party of China with a banner atop the announcement of Google’s new office space in Beijing. Commentary from the news organization stated Google moved into their new quarters on September 4th, having temporarily been housed at Xinhua Insurance Mansion and Tsinghua Science Mansion.
The report described a picture of one workspace as “easy to mistake the office for a personal study.” I don’t know how many personal studies have dual widescreen computer monitors on the desks and sheathed swords on the walls, but that must be more commonplace in China.
Another set of photos of Google’s China staff at work and play shows them making sculptures out of a magnetic construction set and rocking out to Dance Dance Revolution. If they get hungry, there are plenty of snacks available.
Meanwhile in Japan, Google’s Omid Kordestani addressed a conference in Tokyo. Reuters reported that Kordestani wants to grow the company’s international sales from 42 percent of revenue to more than half.
They will recruit engineers in Japan to help accomplish this. Google already has a deal in place that delivers its mobile search and advertising to cellphones, and they want more from the market according to Kordestani:
“We hope to be much bigger in Japan,” Omid Kordestani, Google’s senior vice president in charge of global sales, told a conference in Tokyo. “We want more innovation in this market.”
“The mobile search and ad in Japan has been very successful,” Kordestani said. “It was developed by our engineers in Japan, New York and other locations.”
Kordestani also said that Google is seeking to develop new technologies for social network services (SNS.)
“Activities on SNS are bigger than any other activities on the Internet,” the executive said. “We’re looking to work more in this area.”