Office spotlight: Singapore

From the Shiok cafe in Google’s Singapore office, you can catch a glimpse of the docks along Singapore’s west coast — and beyond that, the Singapore Strait, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. It’s a reminder of Singapore’s long-standing role as a hub for global trade.

We first opened a Singapore office in 2007 — a tiny space in the business district — before moving to a new, purpose-built space in 2016. Today, Singapore is our Asia Pacific headquarters, located at the center of Asia’s vibrant digital economy, and home to more than 2,000 Googlers. Like Singapore itself, the office is a melting pot of cultures, languages, ideas and (importantly) incredible food. It gives us a platform to understand, build for and invest in the entire region. But it’s also deeply anchored in the local community: from the names of the kampongs (village in Malay) and meeting rooms where Googlers work, to the outreach programs we run in support of Singaporean developers, nonprofits and students. Let’s take a closer look…

Shared spaces and a close-knit community

Exploring the office, you may see people sharing ideas for products in the Maker Space, going for a stroll in the rooftop garden or catching up with colleagues over kopi in one of our cafes. Over the past few months, Googlers in Singapore have been gradually (and safely) returning to the office, as local restrictions ease. Right now, only a certain percentage of Googlers are able to be in the office at any one, while others work from home. It’s part of our new, hybrid approach to work — which focuses on flexibility, giving Googlers more options for where and how they work in the future.

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