Kai-Fu Lee’s time as president of Google China began with controversy, as Microsoft sued the search company for poaching him, then faced a countersuit by Google. His departure was a severe blow for Microsoft’s Chinese operations, and brought out the depth of the animosity between the two companies.
Mr Lee’s impending departure from Google has also sparked debate – not least because it is still unclear exactly why he is leaving and what he is going on to do.
Mr Lee has posted a blog about his departure, but this has only created more confusion, partly because of translation problems. The blogosphere is having a field day mocking the Google Translate service which renders Mr Lee’s Chinese text into bizarre English.
What is clear from Mr Lee’s blog, is that his new venture will be something to do with youth and entrepreneurship. One early rumour was that he would start an IdeaLab.com in China to help the Chinese create new technology companies. Later, however, there was a message on Twitter from Mr Lee - @kaifulee - quashing this: “I am not going to join IdeaLab. I will build a new platform for young entrepreneurs, you will have the detail next week.”
Mr Lee is a voice recognition expert, and his impressive CV, which includes Apple as well as Microsoft and Google, means his next venture will certainly be one to watch. A venture capital company seems likely. The blogosphere holds its breath.
Google will not be replacing Mr Lee when he leaves the company later this month. It will take two people to do his job henceforth – John Liu, currently head of sales, will run operations, while Boon-Lock Yeo will take charge of engineering in China.
Google says that this split fits the management profile of other territories such as Europe, although Google still has an overall president in Japan. Mr Lee was appointed when Google’s presence in China was much smaller. Just as his departure could be seen as a reflection of Google’s struggles in the region, it could also suggest that the company is taking China more seriously; the job of managing both sales and engineering has become too big for one person to manage.
The lack of clarity around Mr Lee’s “new venture” does not lend itself to a charitable interpretation of events. But plenty of prominent Googlers leave to form new start-ups. Friendfeed, the social communications service that was acquired by Facebook last month, was developed by the Googlers behind Gmail and Google Maps. Twitter’s management team has also spent time at Google.
Perhaps Google itself needs to retain some of that entrepreneurial zeal if it is to finally crack the Chinese market.
By Maija Palmer and Tim Bradshaw
