When Google opened the R&D Center in Korea last year, they announced its plan to invest $140 million in Korean market including some of the IT company acquisitions. Their latest announcement to invest additional $10million in Korean market shows how eager they are to gain the market share there.

Since Google entered in Korean market in 2005, their search market share has been kept small at 5% level. Not even Google has been able to take the market share from Korea’s number 1 search site, Naver.

Google has R&D Center in Japan and China, both of which markets they were able to gain the market share in recent years. Now, Google ranks at #2 in both Japan and China. Being able to provide the services that work in each market through R&D Center rather than to push the same model used in US looks like the key to their success in Asian market.