June 27, 2006

Google is expected to open a new marketing office in Egypt. The company already has a R&D Lab based in Israel.

Overall, the Arab world had expected Google to open its regional office in the area of Dubai, but the company finally opted on Egypt.

According to familiar sources, Google Egypt hired Sherif Iskander as a Country Manager. Iskander will also serve as a regional manager and will be looking around for suitable candidates to fill the posts of Associate Product Marketing Manager.

An unofficial Google page at Wikia.com details why Google should choose Egypt as their Middle Eastern base for regional operations.

At the Wiki’s talk page, someone also notes the hiring of the regional manager for the Middle East and points to the vaccant positions.

It seems that although the official Google jobs site lists the vacancy for a product marketing manager for their office in Egypt, the listing fails to mention that posting may require travel between London and Cairo.

The same job posted on monster.com states that the job is located in London although it is for Google Egypt. Is Google planning on pushing Arabized/localized versions of their enterprise solutions like the OneBox & Google Earth?

One of the reasons as to why Google might have chosen Egypt for their Middle Eastern regional office over Dubai, is that Yahoo already has a footing in terms of advertising sales & marketing operations for the region over at Dubai’s Internet City.

Source: Search Engine Journal