Google Opens First Asia Campus in High-Tech Seoul
In Seoul Friday Google opened its first campus in Asia to support Internet start-up entrepreneurs. Google hopes the new venture will give Korean high-tech programs and applications access to the world market, and give Google more access to the Korean market.
Compared to the sprawling complex of buildings and green spaces that make up Google’s main campus and corporate headquarters in California’s Silicon Valley, “Campus Seoul, A Google Space” is a small venture.
Located in an office building in the trendy Gangnam neighborhood, it consists of 2,000 square meters of open office space for Korean Internet entrepreneurs to work.
Mary Grove, director of Google for Entrepreneurs says at Campus Seoul, aspiring Internet program developers will get encouragement, mentoring, opportunities to network, and help finding investors. This supportive environment that Google is providing free of charge, she says, also helps the company to penetrate the Korean market.
South Korea is one of the few countries in the world where Google is not the top Internet search engine. Instead the Korean company Naver dominates that market.
Google has similar facilities in London and Tel Aviv, but this is the company’s first such venture in Asia.
Google decided on Seoul because it has some of the fastest Internet speeds, a large talent pool of well-educated engineers, and one of the highest percentages of smart phone users in the world.
