Google opens first Asia data centers

Google has opened two new data centers in Taiwan and in Singapore, in an effort to address predicted data demand from China and India — which are much more difficult regulatory nuts to crack. 

Why not inside of China or India? Widespread Internet censorship in China ruled it out for Google, while India's Internet freedom laws and regulations are very much in flux. 

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Google is banking on a new wave of Asian Internet users, as the region grows more and more wired. 

"While we've been busy building, the growth in Asia's Internet has been amazing. The number of Internet users in India doubled, from 100 million to 200 million. It took six years to achieve that milestone in the U.S.," Google's vice president of data centers, Joe Kava, said in a statement, according to Reuters. 

"And this growth probably won't slow for some time, since the majority of people that have yet to come online also happen to live in Asia," he said.

A Hong Kong data center was in the works, but Google leadership decided to scrap the project and instead focus on the Taiwan and Singapore facilities — in part because finding room to build it in small, expensive Hong Kong proved to be a challenge. 

According to AFP, Google now plans to double its investment in the Changhua facility in Taiwan, with a price tag of $600 million. The company has earmarked $120 million for the facility in Singapore, according to Reuters. 

Google currently has 12 international data centers,with seven located in the Americas.