There’s a report out today from Sina Tech, spotted by The Next Web, that states that Microsoft is going to building a new research and development (R&D) centre in Beijing. This new centre will be dubbed the “Microsoft Advanced Technology Center for Internet” and will further Microsoft’s investment in internet technology in China.
The new centre will focus on 4 areas of Microsoft’s various internet based technologies and products. These will be Bing, online advertising, MSN and its mobile internet service. There has already been a lot of recent developments for Bing to come out of China with such new technologies as “Tiger”, “Cosmos” and “SCOPE”. It will be good to see what else this new R&D site will be able to provide for Bing and indeed Microsoft’s other internet technologies.
It is thought that this new centre will incorporate the former Search Technology Center Asia (STCA) which was previously the main place for Bing technologies. Microsoft is keen to make Bing more popular in China and over the summer partnered with Baidu to provide the English search results within China. The Microsoft Advanced Technology Center for Internet will provide jobs for “hundreds” of research personnel from Beijing and Tokyo.
Harry Shum, Microsoft global senior vice president, stated that “the establishment of the center demonstrates that Microsoft pays great attention to global internet industry and Chinese market”.