Google China will open a
new research center in Shanghai next year, according to company sources quoted
in local media. Kaifu Lee, a Google vice-president in China, told the
Shanghai
Daily that Google aimed to double the number of Chinese sites using its
advertising services by the end of the year.
According to Google China's corporate website, the company is now seeking
several staff in Shanghai, including a wireless software developer for mobile
applications, advertising client relations staff, and a public relations
manager. Google's strongest local rival in China,
Baidu, recently signed a deal
with Nokia to pre-install its mobile search
application on Nokia phones.
Google China held an estimated 13.2 per cent of the Chinese search market in
the first quarter, according to Beijing-based research firm
Analysys
International. This put the search specialist behind both China's search
leader, Baidu, which had 43.9 per cent and
Yahoo China with 21.1 per cent.
Google China's current president, Kaifu Lee, was poached from
Microsoft, Google's
global rival, in July 2005. Microsoft, which trails far behind in the Chinese
search market, opened a research center in Shanghai last September.
Google's new Shanghai R&D centre will be the firm's second in China, with
the first, in Beijing, opened last year. The company also has a research centre
in Taipei.
The company has recruited a total of 100 engineers in China and plans to
double or triple that number, the
Ch
ina Daily reported last week. Google China vice-president Dr Kai-Fu Lee told
Chinese media yesterday that Google would simply seek to hire highly-qualified
research staff in Shanghai, with no firm limit on numbers.
However, hiring has been highly selective, according to some sources. The
company's Taipei research centre has only taken on 10 software engineers from
almost 200 hopefuls since opening in March, the centre's director told
Digitimes in
Taiwan today. Of these, only six were local hires.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article