Google adds new Singapore data center as Southeast Asia reaches 330M internet users

Google is adding a third data center to its presence in Singapore in response to continued internet growth in Southeast Asia.

It’s been three years since it added a second center in Singapore, and during that time the company estimates that something in the region of 70 million people across Southeast Asia have come online for the first time. That takes the region to over 330 million internet users, but with a population of over 650 million, there’s plenty more to come.

The local data centers don’t exclusively serve their immediate proximity — Asia data centers can handle U.S. traffic, and likewise — but adding more local capacity does help Google services, and companies that run their business on Google’s cloud, run quicker for internet users in that specific region. So not only is it good for locals, but it’s important for Google’s business, which counts the likes of Singapore Airlines, Ninjavan, Wego, Go-Jek and Carousell as notable cloud customers.

The search giant also operates a data center in Taiwan. The company had planned to augment Taiwan and Singapore with a center in Hong Kong, but that project was canned in 2013 due to challenges in securing real estate.

Google opened its first Singapore data center in 2011, and this newest facility will take it to around $850 million spent in Singapore to date, the company confirmed, and to over $1 billion when including Taiwan.

Google: Southeast Asia’s internet economy is growing faster than expected

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