The US web giant Google yesterday formally announced that it
will set up a China research and development center this quarter
and had appointed Kai-fu Lee, a Microsoft corporate vice-president,
as Google China president to head it.
Google said the Chinese market, with the world's second largest
number of internet users, is one of the most important areas of its
global expansion plans and has a huge pool of talent, especially of
IT graduates.
"Google has found the perfect person to lead our growing Chinese
operations, so it seems the time is right for us to begin to set up
such a center," the company said in a written statement.
It followed news on Tuesday that Microsoft was suing both Google
and Lee over his appointment.
Microsoft said Lee's acceptance of the position violated a
non-competition promise he had made and that "Google is fully aware
of Lee's promises to Microsoft, but has chosen to ignore them, and
has encouraged Lee to violate them."
Google responded with a statement saying Microsoft's claims were
"meritless" and vowing to defend Lee vigorously.
Lee joined Microsoft in 1998 and started Microsoft Research Asia
in China. The center became one of Microsoft's best research
organizations and Lee was promoted to vice-president in charge of
natural interaction services, the highest-ranking Chinese in the
firm.
He has extensive and intensive relations with the government,
scientists and engineers, as well as China's information technology
arena.
Sun Lilin, senior analyst with Beijing-based market researchers
Analysis International, said starting its expansion with the
establishment of a research center was a sign of Google's long-term
commitment to China and would win trust from the government. The
firm's services have been blocked many times in the past due to
violations of regulations.
Henry Yang, president of Shanghai-based internet market
consulting firm iResearch, also pointed out that Google is no
longer purely a search engine, but is penetrating into diverse
internet service areas.
According to iResearch, the Chinese firm Baidu has a market
share in China of 44.7 percent, while Google follows with 30
percent.
(China Daily July 21, 2005)