Google
will set up a research and development centre in South Korea, under an agreement
announced yesterday with the country's government.
The search giant, which has had a minimal official presence in Korea to date
despite the popularity of its search engine, will spend at least $10m on the
facility over the next two years.
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Google's Korean lab will employ more than 130 researchers. South Korea is one
of the world's most wired nations, with heavy adoption of mobile and fixed line
data services.
However, there are fears that Google will tempt too many researchers away
from local businesses.
"Our greatest concern is that Google will lure away competent research
personnel in the domestic internet industry by using its global fame," said Choi
Whee-young, chief executive at Korea's largest local internet portal,
Naver.
Google currently has a small Korean office at which around 10 employees
handle the firm's local online ad business. Most of Google's Korean language
services are created and maintained by engineers at its US headquarters.
The announcement of the new research facility had been long expected. But
Google's plans have been delayed by difficulties in finding a suitable local
manager for the project and other local staff, according to the
Korea
Times.
"The Google R&D centre in Korea enables us to recruit local computer
scientists to further develop innovative search technologies for Korean users
and users around the world," senior Google vice president Alan Eustace told a
press conference.
"[Investment] will depend on our performance later, but $10m is a low
expectation. Our expectation is high."
Analysts believe that Google's lack of experience with the Korean language
makes its search and other services less effective for Koreans thereby dampening
interest from the local market.
But Google's Korean language website is among the 40 most popular sites in
Korea, local reports say, despite the fact that the US company has so far made
no promotional effort targeted at the country.
Web statistics firm
Alexa
currently ranks
Google.com
and
Google.co.kr
at 18 and 32 respectively in its list of websites most visited by users in
Korea.
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