Google s going Gangnam style, opening a new South Korean startup center in the trendy Seoul neighborhood. It s also reportedly eyeing spacious new digs for its Los Angeles offices – in a historic aircraft hangar.
If you ve been following the Internet giant, you know it s been on a real estate shopping spree in the Bay Area, buying and leasing buildings on the San Francisco Peninsula and also expanding its footprint in San Francisco itself.
But Google s also been opening a series of start-up accelerator centers in cities around the world, where it hopes to network with new companies and entrepreneurs. Google launched the latest of these centers in Seoul this week, with a visit from Sundar Pichai, who oversees the Android and Chrome business for Google.
Silicon Valley is about meeting the right people, and we want to see an exchange of ideas here, Pichai said during his visit, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, the Journal is also reporting that Google has plans for expanding its Los Angeles offices, which currently house some operations of YouTube and other divisions. Google is said to be in early negotiations to lease about 300,000 square feet in a massive hangar that sits in LA s Playa Vista district, where other tech startups are based.
The space was once owned by Hughes Aircraft and was used by financier Howard Hughes to build his giant Spruce Goose airplane. It has since been used by Hollywood filmmakers, among others.
(Image of Gangnam Style artist Psy and friends, from YouTube)
