谷歌擬將臺灣數據中心擴大一倍

Google will double its investment in a data centre it is building in Taiwan as internet use in Asia rockets beyond what the US internet group predicted a few years ago when it first planned the site, one of its first two Asia data centres.

谷歌(Google)將對其在臺灣建造的一個數據中心追加一倍投資。該數據中心是谷歌在亞洲設立的首批兩個數據中心之一。亞洲互聯網使用的迅猛增長，超越了這家美國互聯網集團幾年前最初規劃該數據中心時的預期。

The search company already invested $300m in the massive centre on a flat plain outside a city in central Taiwan, and says it will double that in the next stages of the data centre’s development.

該數據中心規模龐大，位於臺灣中部一個城市郊外的平原地帶。這家搜索公司已在該數據中心投資3億美元，並表示將在下一階段的建設中追加一倍投資。

“Between July and September this year, more than 60m people in Asia got on to mobile internet for the first time; about as many people as live in all the United Kingdom,” said Scott Beaumont, Google’s managing director of greater China. The growth is “really quite staggering and we’re really just beginning”, he said.

谷歌大中華區董事總經理斯科特•博蒙特(Scott Beaumont)說：“今年7-9月，亞洲有逾6000萬人首次使用移動互聯網，這大約相當於整個英國的人口。”他說，這種增長速度“真的令人震驚，而我們其實才剛剛開始”。

Referring to the recent popularity of YouTube videos like those of South Korean pop star Psy, he said: “We’ve barely got started with video.”

在提到前不久YouTube上類似韓國流行歌星樸載相(Psy)的視頻非常火爆時，他說：“我們在視頻方面纔剛剛起步。”

Part of the reason Google will be increasing its investment in Taiwan is that a third planned site, in northern Hong Kong, fell through due to a shortage of usable land in the small territory.

谷歌之所以增加對臺灣數據中心的投資，部分原因還在於，在香港北部設立第三個數據中心的計劃泡湯了，因爲香港的可用土地短缺。

Google engineers said that the company needed more room to grow into than it could find in mostly urban Hong Kong.

谷歌的工程師表示，香港絕大部分地區已城市化，谷歌無法找到足夠滿足其發展需要的空間。