Sat, 30-Aug-2008
Google poised to ride online growth wave
Sobel
Published: May 03, 2007
Singapore - As first reported by Marketing in January about its arrival in Singapore, Google has finally released an official announcement about the opening of its Singapore office which will serve as the regional hub for SE Asia.
The launch comes as the company readies itself to tap into the growing search advertising market, with the new office to enable Google to roll out its advertising platform, services and search experience to its target audience of users, advertisers and partners in the region - primary focus will be placed on pushing both Google AdWords and Google AdSense to customers.
Lori Sobel, head of sales for Singapore heads up the unit - she reports to Richard Kimber, MD of sales and operations for SE Asia. Sobel was most recently based in New York with Google where she served on the business solutions team.
"I look forward to helping organisations in Singapore and SE Asia understand and leverage the returns that are available through Google's advertising platform with AdWords and AdSense," Sobel said.
Kimber said Google chose to open an office in Singapore due to its close proximity to users and regional advertisers and partners, conducive IT environment, infrastructure and government support - the company is also looking to employ local talent, establish an engineering centre and work closely with partners and advertisers in the region.
Sobel said the company has already employed "several dozen" staff but declined to put a figure on Google's investment into Singapore or the region.
The duo however revealed that with APAPC online ad growth figures expected to increase at a rate of 28%, the company's strategy would be to partner closely with ad agencies to educate them on how to leverage on Google's products and services to provide measurable, scalable and accountable campaigns.
Some Singapore companies which have already partnered up with Google include corporations such as MediaCorp, The Straits Times, Hardware Zone, streetdirectory.com, AsiaOne, Bezurk and SingTel.