Asian Nations Battle for Google Data Center

1sockchuck writes "Google is pitting foreign governments against one another in a battle for a major new data center in Asia. In the past week, both the prime minister of Malaysia and economic minister of Taiwan have said their countries are leading candidates for the Google project, with Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam also mentioned as contenders in an 18-nation site selection process. Google typically invests $600 million in each new data center. Tech companies often use multi-site searches as a tool to coax incentives out of local governments, which sweeten their offers to outbid rivals from other regions. Google's Asian initiative appears to be taking this strategy to a new level, coaxing heads of state to invest political capital in their lust for one of Google's mega-datacenters."

Re:They only want the datacanter

[Amorymeltzer]

They want the data center because $600 million talks pretty loudly no matter what country you're in, especiallyif you're a developing nation. Google made a mistake with China, and they've all but acknowledged it; they won't soon do the same thing. It's also pretty fucking naïve to say "All of Asia wants to control and censor the information available."

Re:They only want the datacanter

[d12v10]

Not all Asian nations are intent on suppressing their media, and it is ignorant to think so. $600 million is a lot of money, and developing Asian countries surely need that money injected into their economies.

Google, Watch Out

[trunkthink]

Those countries that show any signs of implementing strict laws to protect the privacy of their citizens as well a enforcing strict limits upon how personally, psychological targeted marketing will be, will consider themselves right out of the running.

The US is riding a fine line with above statement.

Google has already decided.

[tomhudson]

They've already decided, and are just using the "process" to extract whatever additional concessions they can.

Think of it, people - dependable power, lots of fibre, stable social structure ... the decision will be made on the best tech merits, not "whoever throws the most incentives at them." After all:

1. The incentives are one-time, the recurring costs are ... well, recurring;
2. Even if one country offered to pay the full price, if they don't have decent infrastructure, forget it - it will cost too much (see point #1)

So, they've already decided, and they'll use this as a way to both get a few more concessions, and to help avoid bruising other countries egos - they'll find a justification "all things considered, their bid was the best."

You heard it here first.

why do they need to leave the US, exactly?

[SuperBanana]

Google will be accepting bids from those countries that can show a long term commitment to the acceptability of the invasion of privacy of others and ensuring full legal protection for the use of that private data in any way that the googlite marketdroids choose ie. profits before privacy.

What makes you think they have to leave the states to do this? We've got people losing laptops with everything from nuclear weapons documents to half a million social security numbers with no encryption on them, and far as I can see, nobody's been fined a dime or spent an hour in jail.

List of Google data centers?

[harmonica]

Is there a somewhat up to date list of Google's data center locations on the Web? Everything I can find is outdated.

Why not the Philippines?

[merc]

I'm not Filipino, but I've been there a couple times and there are some reasons I can think of which make it a good place to house a data center:

1) Filipinos speak impecibly good English with little or no accent. I have no issue understanding them.

2) Philippines is a very westernized place; it would be easy for a western-based company to work or conduct business there.

3) They love Linux in the Philippines ;-) Of course they love Linux all over asia, but a lot of Philippines businesses are warming up to Linux. Also, they love everything about American culture there so it would be a fun place to work.

Re:why do they need to leave the US, exactly?

[panaceaa]

Users have lower latency, hence loading web pages perceivably faster, if they're talking to servers in the same continent. There's hundreds of millions of people coming online each year in Asia, so it makes sense to grow data centers there to serve those users better.

Re:Why not the Philippines?

[longacre]

Google should feel right at home being based in California.

Do no Evil?

[Gman14msu]

I`m not necessarily saying that Google's tactics here are evil but damn, strategies and actions like this certainly aren't resounding endorsements of that policy. I also noticed that no one else seems to have brought the policy up. Have we all just given up on the slogan? No one even bothers to call them out on it anymore? I wish I could still believe but it looks like everyone has lost faith in the apparently too idealistic policy.

Re:Suitable Privacy Invasion Laws

[Barraketh]

And just what kind of privacy laws would you like to have in place? Google provides you with a free service under specific terms of service. They also disclose exactly which data is being collected. If you are uncomfortable using their services, you're free not to do so. Where exactly do you see a place for government intervention? Where is this "invasion of privacy"?

You also mention limits on personally targeted marketing. Why? I think it would be great if every ad that I'm shown on the web was for something that I was interested in. Who exactly is harmed by personalized marketing to the extent that it requires government regulation?

The reason that Australia is not in the running is that this datacenter will mostly serve continental Asia, so it makes sense to put it in continental Asia. As a result, you guys are losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the local economy.

India: User-pop/Democracy/English/Economy/Laws

[Anonymous Coward]

Favourable : India: User-pop/Democracy/English/Economy/Laws

Re:Suitable Privacy Invasion Laws

[afaik_ianal]

The reason that Australia is not in the running is that this datacenter will mostly serve continental Asia, so it makes sense to put it in continental Asia.

Yep - and the connection between Australia and continental Asia is pathetic. Given a list of mirrors that exclude Australia, Australians will almost always go for the US mirror over any Asian mirror - and rightly so.

And it makes sense when you think about it. Even though there's a huge amount of trade between Australia and Asia, the cultural barriers tend to reduce the flow of information. English speaking Australians might go to Asian sites to grab the latest drivers for our hardware, but that's about it. The vast majority of our non-AU information consumption comes from the US and to a lesser extent, the UK.

Re:Why not the Philippines?

[Jack Admiral]

A very good friend of mine is a Filipino, and the first time I talked about RPGs he thought I was referring to rocket-propelled grenades. Seriously. (And he used to live in the safe area.)

I'm replying to this post since I noticed it was being modded up. I am a Filipino. If you talk to any computer literate Filipino who plays games, they would know what an RPG is. They would know what FPS stands for. They might even know what RTS means.

The person you might have been talking may be a military or weapons buff. I know a few of these people who are so knowledgeable in weapons and guns but have no idea about computer or video games.

The implication of the reply of the poster is that no Filipino knows the computer-related meaning of RPG and that statement would have some validity since MOST Filipinos have never used, much less owned a computer before.

But how many people in industrialized nations would know the correct meaning of RPG? If you asked a guy off the street ala Jay Leno, would they be able to answer correctly?

I've seen the questions being asked by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and almost all of the questions he was asking ordinary Americans on the street, I was able to answer, even though most of the people he asked, answered incorrectly. What does that say about most Americans? It says nothing, just as one Filipino not knowing what RPG means, says about most Filipinos.

I hope vistors to Slashdot have not been misled by the statements of the poster above.

Re:Why not the Philippines?

[soulfury]

I'm not Filipino, but I've been there a couple times and there are some reasons I can think of which make it a good place to house a data center:

1) Filipinos speak impecibly good English with little or no accent. I have no issue understanding them.

2) Philippines is a very westernized place; it would be easy for a western-based company to work or conduct business there.

3) They love Linux in the Philippines ;-) Of course they love Linux all over asia, but a lot of Philippines businesses are warming up to Linux. Also, they love everything about American culture there so it would be a fun place to work.

Good point, but unfortunately, Google is not trying to build a call center. The Philippines still needs to beef up its infrastructure. Strong winds often knocks out aging power lines in some provinces and causes blackouts that last for days. I still wish that Google would set up its data center here though. This would at least lessen talent poaching by Japan and Singapore.