Google has opened their Southeast Asian offices in Singapore which will represent ad sales in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other area countries (I wonder if the Philippines and Indonesia are on this list, as Friendster is incredibly popular amongst users in these countries and is a strong Google advertising partner).
According to Google, the Southeast Asian region is rapidly growing with more affordable broadband access and e-commerce growing.
Expect Google’s Southeast Asian department to become involved in mobile technologies and monetization in the area as well.
“We see the Singapore environment as being very conducive to business like Google and in particular as information technology is such an important part of the government’s infrastructure,” said Richard Kimber, Google Southeast Asia’s managing director of sales and operations.
Yup, the Philippines is on the list. One of the newly hired Filipino/Tagalog Adwords Support was sent to the Singapore office a few weeks ago.
Yes, Indonesia is also on the list. Judging by their employment ads.