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."

Comments

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 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.