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Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

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Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#11
post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

> I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other.

Yup.

When I was in Korea I met a few Taiwanese that my employer poached from Asus, HTC, Benq, ...

The state of their tech scene seemed quite dire. They would easily double their salary in Korea, for a pretty similar CoL. Eventually most got fed up with the Korean work culture and left for even higher salaries in... mainland China!

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#12
post #7
post #2

How long until the office is closed as a result of PRC protestations?

PRC can dream all they want but they have no authority on the island.

Whether they have authority on the island or not, they have pull with Google.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#13
post #2

How long until the office is closed as a result of PRC protestations?

Arguably, this news may be the most real confirmation that Dragonfly isn't going to happen. As Google likely would not increase it's investment in Taiwan while trying to get China on board with their return to China's search market.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#14
I visited Taiwan recently and was shocked by the weird economics there. Rent, food, clothing, and labor are extremely cheap. Foreign goods and property are insanely expensive. It's clear there's wealth, as I saw several dozen rare BMWs and Audis, and some Lambos, Ferraris, Bentleys. But then I read that the average annual salary of a new university graduate is $11,000 USD.

It's also a very friendly place to foreigners. I'm surprised there aren't any enterprising people jumping from Shenzhen to Taipei now that Shenzhen is so expensive.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#15
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PRC can dream all they want but they have no authority on the island.

At the end of the day, laws and authority are just a bunch of humans playing make believe with each other. It all comes down to enforcement. Without enforcement, laws and authority are meaningless. Take the USA and England as analogous to Taiwan and China. In the 1700s, England had a "One-England policy" and claimed authority over the US colonies. The US colonies disagreed. Some of the international community acknowl…

A key difference is that the governments of the British colonies in North America were officially installed by, and reported to, Britain.

cf. the Taiwanese government, the KMT, which at one point controlled the mainland, but was pushed into exile on Taiwan by the communists. The existence of a free Taiwan threatens the legitimacy of the communist government on the mainland: the PRC, like most propaganda-fueled authoritarian regimes, does not like anything that suggests there's an alternative to their system.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PRC can dream all they want but they have no authority on the island.

Whether they have authority on the island or not, they have pull with Google.

It's strange the focus is on a speculative project that is not near happening from a company not very cooperative with China when there are lots of companies who are doing business as usual in China

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#17
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PRC can dream all they want but they have no authority on the island.

At the end of the day, laws and authority are just a bunch of humans playing make believe with each other. It all comes down to enforcement. Without enforcement, laws and authority are meaningless. Take the USA and England as analogous to Taiwan and China. In the 1700s, England had a "One-England policy" and claimed authority over the US colonies. The US colonies disagreed. Some of the international community acknowl…

I think the PRC is less bothered about taking extreme measures than the UK was also less incompetent.

If George III had had as big a bee in his bonnet about reclaiming the colonies as the PRC has about Taiwan I doubt that America would have remained independent - compare the Uk Army of 1770's vs Wellingtons Army circa 1812.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#18
I lived in Taiwan for a couple of years. The cost of living is also extremely low, which will benefit Google and many other companies that open offices there.

A nice apartment in a great part of town was only around $350/month USD. I also had the benefit of making US wages contracting at the time.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#19
post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

Tech companies are the ones to blame. There is insane numbers of untapped talent willing to work remote and to adapt to the bay area time zone if needed. They'll also work for less than 1/10th of their US based ones.

There are two possible explanations:

1- Tech companies didn't try to expand overseas; didn't care and just tried to limit salaries inland (I just remembered their fiasco).

2- Tech companies failed to expand overseas. This might be due to concentrating in a single location (India) for all outsourcing.

I think they should try to have satellite offices in most countries out-there. Instead of big ones, rather small ones that higher only the best of the best of that particular country.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#20
post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

>> a clone of some upcoming business model

>> target foreign contracts

Both involve working for someone for a long time, then leaving on your own. Really high risk, and people will just dump all their problems on you.

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