goog 表示通过马来西亚回到亚洲。
HONG KONG—More than a year after Google Inc. threatened to pull out of
China, throwing into doubt its growth plans in the world's biggest Internet
market, the U.S. search giant says it remains committed to the country even
as it now sets its sights on Southeast Asia for further growth.
In line with its strategy to expand in Southeast Asia, Google said Wednesday
it is opening a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, its first Asia office
in four years, after the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant set up
offices in Singapore and South Korea in 2007.
"We're seeing a tremendous amount of growth in Southeast Asia," Daniel
Alegre, president, Japan and Asia-Pacific operations, said in an interview.
Malaysia "has very high mobile penetration, about 108%, and most of the
Internet users that are coming online will probably start to interact with
the Internet through mobile phones rather than PCs."
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Saeed Khan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Malaysia's deputy trade and industry minister Mukhriz Mahathir watching
Julian Persaud, managing director of Google Southeast Asia, in Kuala Lumpur
Jan. 26
Google's move to open a new office in Malaysia comes just a year after its
dispute with China over censorship of search results. The company's share of
revenue in China's online search market extended its slide in the fourth
quarter, falling to 19.6% from 21.6% in the third quarter and a peak of 35.6
% in the last three months of 2009, according to Beijing research firm
Analysys International. Rival Chinese search giant Baidu Inc.'s market share
rose to 75.5% from 73% in the third quarter, and compared with 58.4% in the
last three months of 2009, according to Analysys.
Mr. Alegre said Google is still committed to expanding in China and
continues to invest "aggressively" in the market, without providing specific
figures or details.
"I can tell you that we're seeing very positive growth across the board in
China. As a result, it's a market we will continue to invest in," he said.
In Malaysia, Google's share of the search market is around 70%, while annual
search-growth rates from the country have been in double-digit percentages.
The executive declined to comment on how many workers Google will employ in
Malaysia, but a Google spokesman said the company plans to hire more than
500 people in Asia this year, around a fifth of them in Southeast Asia.
Globally, Google said Tuesday it plans to hire more than 6,000 employees
this year as the Web-search company continues to diversify its business by
expanding into areas such as online enterprise software, mobile-device
software and local-advertising initiatives.
Mr. Alegre also said Google is in talks with content providers both in
Malaysia and Indonesia to bring more localized content in these two
countries.
"We're in conversations with many partners across Southeast Asia...we have a
large index of locally relevant content in each of the markets," he said.
In Indonesia, Google signed a distribution deal in June with PT Bakrie
Telecom where the Indonesian carrier packaged the Chrome browser and Picasa
photo software on dongles that give mobile Internet access. In January this
year, Indonesia's incumbent mobile telecom operator, Telekomsel, signed a
deal to resell Google Apps for business suite—Google's enterprise version
of docs, gmail and video chat—as part of a broadband offering.
—Owen Fletcher in Beijing contributed to this article.