Yahoo to Open Global R&D Center in Beijing

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BEIJING, Jun. 10 – American internet giant Yahoo has announced that it will open a global research and development center (R&D) in Beijing focusing on research on search, advertising, cloud computing, and other personal internet tools and technologies.

The center will be the third of the company’s global R&D networks with the other two located in the United States and India.

The R&D center will also focus on developing Yahoo’s core platform globally, said Jeff Kinder, senior vice-president, Yahoo Media Products & Solutions.

It will also be functioning independently from the Alibaba Group, which handles Yahoo’s operations in the country. Since  Yahoo’s new Chief Executive Carol Bartz took office this year, relations between the company and Alibaba have been rocky according to media reports. Alibaba is China’s largest e-commerce portal and is 39 percent owned by Yahoo.

Yahoo wants to take advantage of China’s abundant supply of scientists and engineers. The Beijing center will mainly do “science-driven engineering work”, Zhang Chen, head of the center, told China Daily.

“The new R&D center is another example of Yahoo’s long-term commitment to engage with the Chinese technology community,” Aristotle Balogh, Yahoo’s chief technology officer, said in a statement.

Yahoo declined to say how much it will be investing on the new center or how many people it plans to hire.