Google is still evaluating market demand and adjusting its plan to build a new data center in Tainan, Google Taiwan managing director of sales and operations Tina Lin (林雅芳) told the Central News Agency on Sunday.
Lin was speaking after the company was questioned last year by city councilors as to why it had not begun construction of the facility after it announced plans to construct the center more than four years ago.
Lin did not give any more details on the Tainan plan, but emphasized that Google was continuing to invest in its data center in Changhua County, its first in Taiwan.
Photo: Hsu Tzu-ling, Taipei Times
She also said that the level of data handled by the center and its service scope has increased fivefold compared with when it opened in 2013, making it Google’s largest data center in Asia.
Google opened its first Japanese center in Inzai City, Chiba Prefecture, in March last year.
Lin said that in addition to building data centers, Google is continuing to ramp up its investment in Taiwan in other ways.
Its second office building in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) is expected to open in the second quarter of this year, following the unveiling of its new office complex in the Taipei Far Eastern Telecom Park (Tpark, 台北遠東通訊園區) in 2021.
The capacity of the second building is more than twice that of the company’s first office and would bring together talent from Google’s other locations, Lin said.
She added that Google’s engineering laboratories in Taiwan are in short supply and that the new office building would house different types of labs to help boost research and development.
Some employees in the hardware department are still working in a range of locations across Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, but the new office means they would all share the same hub, which would help improve coordination and efficiency, Lin said.
The 16-floor office complex in Tpark is Google’s first and largest hardware development base outside the US and features a gym, massage room, rest area and health center for employees.
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