Google has opened its first ever data centers in Asia as it looks to boost its growth further in the region.

 

Plans for a data center in Hong Kong have been scrapped however, due to what Google described as a “lack of land”.

 

The move comes as a growing number of people in Asia - which is home to more than half of the world's population - are getting connected to the internet.

 

Google said having data centers in Asia will help it to provide faster and "more reliable" access to its tools and services to users in the region.

 

The two new centers are based in Taiwan and Singapore.

 

Joe Kava, Google’s VP of data centers, said in a blogpost the growth in Asia’s internet has been “amazing”.

 

"Between July and September of this year alone, more than 60m people in Asia landed on the mobile internet for the first time. That's almost two Canadas, or three Australias,” Kava said.

 

"And this growth probably won't slow for some time, since the majority of people that have yet to come online also happen to live in Asia.”

 

The rapid speed at which internet users in the region have been growing, has turned Asia into a key market for internet firms.

 

China - Asia's largest economy - has more 500m internet users, making it the world's biggest internet market.

 

Meanwhile, India - the world's second most populous country after China - has seen the number of users double to 200m just in the last two years.

 

Google said it took six years to achieve a similar growth in the U.S.

 

The firm said it plans to invest US$600m in the long run in the Taiwan data center - the bigger of the two facilities in the region.