Embracing Technology

In the news recently was an announcement by the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that Google Inc is interested to set up a base in Malaysia due to its huge ICT market.

Currently Google has no operations office in Malaysia and Google Jobs only showed Sales for location in Malaysia.

In fact, Malaysia is not even listed under their Asia Pacific offices list.

 

 

 

 

It was found on the internet that the only Malaysian Google employee is Hanson Toh.

Hanson Toh (Country Consultant (Malaysia), Google Inc)

http://my.jobstreet.com/announcement/2006/u/utsaamc.htm

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hanson

 

 

 

The following is an excerpt from TheStar (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/27/nation/20142302&sec=nation )

“I was told that Malaysians formed the highest group of Google users in South-East Asia,” he told Malaysian journalists after meeting the US giant’s CEO Eric Schmidt on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. It is believed the world’s top Internet search engine company was eyeing Malaysia, India or Vietnam to set up its data centre facilities. 

Abdullah said the company felt Malaysia was a good place for the base due to its strategic geographical location. 

 

 

Checkout how Malaysia’s internet usage stands as compared to other countries mentioned: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/storysupplement/worldinternet/index.htm

 

 

 

Malaysia’s internet users : 13.5 million

 

 

 

 

India’s internet users: 42 million

 

 

 

 

Vietnam’s internet users : 15 million

 

 

 

Indonesia’s internet users : 20 million

Do note that Google has offices in India and the above statistics is on July 25, 2007.

From another statistics site, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm the following holds for the above countries updated for December 31, 2007:

 

 

  

Malaysia: approx 15 million

India: approx 60 million

Vietnam: approx 18 million

Indonesia: approx 20 million

What are the chances of Google setting up office in Malaysia compared to other Asian countries?

 

 

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSKLR24067820080127

http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9588_22-6227995.html

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/27/nation/20142302&sec=nation