Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google to close engineering office in Russia

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 308 posts

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#41

Post by tribaal »

raverbashing wrote: post #40
chkuendig wrote: post #30

Might be a coincidence, but they also just announced plans to rent 50'000 square meters of office space in Zurich http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/google-investiert-d...

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, business-friendly, and not part of the EU?

Just a guess :)

EDIT: It seems Vienna is on top since 2010, my bad. But position 2 is not so bad, and the other points still stand :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Surve...

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#42

Post by dagw »

raverbashing wrote: post #40
chkuendig wrote: post #30

Might be a coincidence, but they also just announced plans to rent 50'000 square meters of office space in Zurich http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/google-investiert-d...

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Simpler tax laws and more employer friendly labor laws would be a guess. Perhaps it's also easier for Google to get residency permits for its workers in Switzerland.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#43

Post by richmarr »

raverbashing wrote: post #40
chkuendig wrote: post #30

Might be a coincidence, but they also just announced plans to rent 50'000 square meters of office space in Zurich http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/google-investiert-d...

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Tax.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#44

Post by jahnu »

tribaal wrote: post #41
raverbashing wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, business-friendly, and not part of the EU? Just a guess :) EDIT: It seems Vienna is on top since 2010, my bad. But position 2 is not so bad, and the other points still stand :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Surve...

These rankings are really odd. They feel like they are only aimed at international business people who work around the world and take their families with them.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#46

Post by pfortuny »

tribaal wrote: post #41
raverbashing wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, business-friendly, and not part of the EU? Just a guess :) EDIT: It seems Vienna is on top since 2010, my bad. But position 2 is not so bad, and the other points still stand :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Surve...

The NOT part of the EU is not to be considered lightly. It is possibly a great factor.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#47

Post by tobltobs »

anovikov wrote: post #16
eldargab wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reasoning. Internet became regulated in Russia, and what? How does this relate to hacking on V8 engine, for example? (They have such teem in Saint Petersburg) This article appeared just to support sentiment and noise around how bad/evil Russia is doing. No matter of truth or plausibility, all kind of noise just works.

But it is indeed is bad and going worse. Free people of the world, including Russians, must do everything for this to stop, and Russian/commuinist/orthodox 'world' to be destroyed as quickly and cleanly as possible. History shows this is possible: collapse of USSR already did most of this job, what remains is easier and there is a good chance Russian threat will be over forever in a generation if we (i mean Russians,…

The russion threat is a threat to the world, because starting a war is a popular option with those failing dictators.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#48

Post by justincormack »

raverbashing wrote: post #40
chkuendig wrote: post #30

Might be a coincidence, but they also just announced plans to rent 50'000 square meters of office space in Zurich http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/google-investiert-d...

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

London is too. They are planning to build a huge office in Kings Cross to replace the current offices, although it has been delayed apparently to make it bigger[1]. This is much larger than Zurich and almost the size of Mountain View it seems.

[1] http://www.building.co.uk/google%E2%80%99s-review-of-%C2%A36...

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#49

Post by raverbashing »

tribaal wrote: post #41
raverbashing wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why is Zurich a big part of Google's strategy as opposed to other places in Europe

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, business-friendly, and not part of the EU? Just a guess :) EDIT: It seems Vienna is on top since 2010, my bad. But position 2 is not so bad, and the other points still stand :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Surve...

It's also extremely expensive ;)

But yeah, I know the city, and I agree with most of it.

Also, yeah, not part of the EU (but in practice it's more of a "pick what you want" thing with the EU

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#50

Post by caio1982 »

robk wrote: post #34

Word is that most employees are being offered full relocation (generally to Zurich) which I have to think will be well received. This goes for both Moscow and St Petersburg.

They did the same thing when they first closed the engineering office in São Paulo (Brazil) years ago. If I remember correctly.
Post reply on HN