UPDATE: Google: New China Management Follows Global Management Structure
07 September 2009 - 8:33PM
Dow Jones News
By replacing its outgoing China head with two executives, Google
Inc. (GOOG) is bringing its China team in line with its global
management structure, with separate managers for engineering and
sales operations, Daniel Alegre, vice president of Google's
Asia-Pacific sales and operations, said Monday.
"We are creating a management structure (in China) that is
similar to what we have done in other countries around the world,
and it has worked very well," Alegre said at a news briefing.
Google announced the resignation of Kai-Fu Lee, head of its
Greater China operations, on Thursday.
Lee is being replaced by two executives. Boon-Lock Yeo,
previously director of Google's Shanghai engineering office, will
take over engineering responsibilities for the Greater China
region. John Liu, who heads Google's sales team in Greater China,
will become vice president of sales and operations, assuming Lee's
business and operational responsibilities.
Previously, Google didn't split the management in China because
it didn't have a large enough team in the country, Alegre said.
"When Lee Kai-Fu joined the company, we were only a handful of
people, so we needed someone to be able to represent all of Google
in China," he said.
Lee joined Google in 2005 from Microsoft Corp., which sued
Google over the move. The case has since been settled between the
two companies.
During Lee's tenure, Google grew its market share considerably,
from 13% in 2005 to 29% at the end of June this year, according to
research firm Analysys International.
But that growth mostly came at the expense of small players such
as Yahoo China, a unit of Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group. Google
hasn't succeeded in taking significant market share from local
search leader Baidu Inc. (BIDU). Over the same period, Baidu grew
its share of the market from 33% to 61%, according to Analysys.
At the news briefing Monday, Liu said Google will work with
regulators to understand new regulations that require online music
sites to seek approval from censors for all foreign songs they
distribute on the Internet. Google will continue to offer music in
China as it reviews the impact from new rules governing online
music sites, he said.
Liu joined Google last year, after six years as China president
for South Korea's SK Telecom Co. Yeo has been at Google since 2007.
Before joining Google, he was the general manager of Intel
Asia-Pacific R&D Ltd., working on Intel's research and
development efforts in China.
-By Aaron Back, Dow Jones Newswires; (8610) 6588-5848;
aaron.back@dowjones.com