Microsoft Corp will invest about $100 million annually over the next three to five years in China, the world’s second largest Internet market with 111 million users, state press reported.
The U.S. software giant established a new research group in Beijing to integrate its online MSN division, technical support and research centers, the paper said.
The Internet is the focus of the total investment as we cannot neglect the booming Internet population in China, Zhang Yaqin, a Microsoft vice president, told the newspaper.
The investment, in response to mounting pressure from rivals Google and Yahoo!, will be channeled into the Internet, research and development in mobile communications, and digital entertainment, the Shanghai Daily reported.
In the latest case, Microsoft this month obliged a Chinese government request to block a prominent Internet blogger’s site after he wrote critically of a crackdown on a Beijing newspaper. Microsoft also came under the spotlight last year when it was revealed its Chinese blogging service restricted the entry of sensitive terms such as "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence."
News of Microsoft’s increasing investments in China follow intense criticism of the US firm’s willingness to help the nation’s Communist rulers restrict freedom of speech on the Internet.
Microsoft plans to employ 3,000 people in the Microsoft China RD Group Center by the end of 2008, up from 800 staff currently employed, it said.