DUBLIN: Google Ireland’s app hub and export support businesses have emerged as “star” divisions, the company’s new country head Ronan Harris has said.
The Irish office is selling online export support services to companies across Europe, he said, using Google data to help them identify and commercialise export opportunities.
This business has emerged as a star performer for Google Ireland, Harris said.
“Using data science and our data insights, we are helping everyone from Irish start-ups to shoe retailers in Paris to identify exporting opportunities and capitalise on them. It is a very rapidly growing activity. We are working with businesses all across Europe.”
Harris also identified Google Ireland’s app hub as one of its biggest successes.
Its Barrow Street offices are home to the company’s EMEA App Hub, which works with app developers to help fast-track their businesses.
It has worked as a launch pad for several US app developers.
“We’ve had a number of big successes with the app hub, like Kama Games,” said Harris. The US app company, which is partnered with Manchester United, announced it was setting up a European headquarters in Ireland earlier this year with the intention of creating 100 jobs over three years.
A fifth of the company’s 2,500 Irish full-time employees are engineers, a company spokesperson added.
Harris’ comments follow the announcement of plans for a €150m data centre, Google’s second in Ireland.
Data centres store information on behalf of companies and individuals, who rent storage space from the owner.
They require excellent connectivity as well as a large physical footprint and a significant energy supply.
Globally, Google is spending billions on data centre construction as it races to compete with rivals like Amazon Web Services, the world’s biggest cloud services provider. European locations are popular as Europe is perceived to have stricter data protection laws than elsewhere in the world.
Ireland is a particularly popular location because of its cool climate. Its lower temperatures mean companies do not need as much mechanical refrigeration equipment to keep the machines from overheating.
