Search for CEO for Expanded Operations Underway
Google, the world’s No.1 Internet search engine company is preparing to expand its business in Korea, hiring a regional chief for its new affiliate company which is expected to open in Seoul within a few months.
The company is also hiring product managers, marketing managers and finance managers who will operate Google Korea. Currently, it only has a few sales representatives in its liaison office in Samsong-dong in southern Seoul, while its Korean services such as the search engine and e-mail service are all developed and managed at its headquarters in the United States.
The U.S. Internet giant, which leads the global search engine market with a market capitalization of $112.7 billion, has been interviewing candidates for the CEO of Google Korea, the company’s public relations agent in South Korea said last week. Though the company refused to reveal details of the candidates, the agent said that the interviews are being held at its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
In preparation for the opening of the Korean affiliate, Google last week held a two-day users forum in Seoul, where they invited some 40 loyal fans of the company. In the closed-door session, participants discussed the strong and weak points of Google’s service here, as well as suggestions for new products and the company’s market positioning strategy in South Korea.
While rumors have been swirling about the launching of Google Korea, the company has increased its marketing activities in the country this year. In May, it held a massive advertising campaign at major universities in Seoul, and invited some of its users on a promotional tour of its headquarters in Silicon Valley in August. Also, it recently opened a Korean-language blogging site, which is the first non-English Internet community service of the firm.
For years, Korea has been one of Google’s main target markets. Although it has not hired engineers in the country, Google has been servicing most of its Web sites in Korean language, including its Internet search engine, a news portal and e-mail service. Also it released Korean versions of additional software programs such as a photo viewer and a desktop search program, too.
So far, Google’s efforts in Korea have not met the company’s expectations. Despite its international reputation and dominance in the search engine market, Google’s Korean Web site could not beat local competitors such as Naver and Daum.
Users see Google’s weakness as a lack of local knowledge. Google gives better results when searching for specific Web documents, but Korean portals are generally better because they show more value-added results, said 28-year-old user Shin Man-jae, citing the local portals unique features such as “Knowledge Search” of Naver and “Open Knowledge” of Empas.
Also, the high broadband penetration enabled South Korean users to prefer fancy portal sites filled with eye-catching animations and various features, rather than the simple user-interface of Google which is designed for countries with slower internet connections.
According to a report from the Internet research firm Metrix, Google’s Korean site ranked only 44th in the monthly standings of the most frequently visited sites in October. Its Korean competitors in the search and portal service Naver, Daum, Nate and Empas were all ranked within the top 15, and even Yahoo Korea, another foreign-owned portal site, ranked fifth, easily beating Google.