Google to open new data center in Seoul early next year

Google announced Wednesday that it would build a new data center in Seoul to better serve local customers. Eyes are on whether the government would be able to impose corporate tax on Google as the company has not been paying taxes here on the grounds that it does not have fixed places of business (server) in Korea despite an enormous amount of revenue it makes in the country.

“Customers can expect to use the Seoul region in early 2020,” Google said at the Google Cloud Next event held in San Francisco on the same day. Currently, the company’s Asian Pacific regions include India, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia. According to Google, all key services of Google Cloud Platform, including Cloud Storage will be provided through the Seoul region as well.

Google is reportedly planning to lease data centers owned by domestic companies, including LG Uplus instead of building a new one. “South Korea is a leader in telecommunications and information technology, and world-famous in the gaming industry” said Brad Calder, vice president of Google. He went on to say that the Seoul region “will help better serve both local customers looking to expand globally and multinational customers doing business in South Korea.” Once the Seoul region starts operation, Google would have fixed places of business in Korea, thereby becoming the subject of taxation. Some say the establishment of the Seoul region is part of Google’s business strategy to win public cloud business deals.


Jae-Hyeng Kim monami@donga.com