LEE STARTS JOB AS HEAD OF GOOGLE IN CHINA
Thursday September 22, 2005, 2:25 pm
BEIJING, Sept 22 Asia Pulse - Kaifu Lee, a target in an
ongoing fight between Microsoft and Google, has taken up his
post as Google's head in China, with the aim of recruiting 50
college graduates this year.
Lee, former vice-president with the US software giant
Microsoft, said yesterday in Beijing: "We have a lot of
expectations for our Chinese operations and the Chinese
market." Speaking after he received permission to work for the
search engine in China, he said that Google's development
centre in China would be established very soon. Google has been deciding where to put the centre between
Beijing and Shanghai. Lee said his company will make a decision
soon. It already has a representative office in Shanghai and has
signed deals with several advertisement agents, preparing for
the formal launch of its business in China. The search giant plans to build a world-class centre in
China, which will not only work on the localization of its
products and services, but also on cutting-edge technologies
for its global operations. The top Chinese scientist at Google said his job is to
hire at least 50 college graduates by the end of this year, as
the job-hunting season for graduate students starts this
month. "We are here not to steal talent from other companies, but
to train local people," he said. Lee, who enjoys a high reputation among Chinese students
for his success in companies including Microsoft and Apple,
promised he would lead the 50 new students personally and make
them into top-class computer scientists. He added that since the graduates can only begin work
after their graduation in the middle of next year, his firm
will also try to recruit engineers from within the industry. Microsoft Research Asia, which was founded by Lee in 1998
in Beijing, also said yesterday it would aim to recruit 100 to
150 graduates this year. Although the Chinese scientist received permission to work
for Google from a US local court, he was not allowed to work on
any projects similar to ones he had worked on at Microsoft. The world's largest software firm sued Lee and Google for
the breach of a non-compete agreement between Microsoft and Lee
in July and demanded the court stop Lee from working at Google
for one year following his departure from Microsoft. The court gave Lee the green light to work at Google, but
it still needs to rule in January on what jobs Lee can work on
at Google so currently his main job is to find employees for
his new firm in China. (XIC)
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