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With nearly half of the world’s Internet users, Asia Pacific is increasingly central to the growth and development of the Internet — and the source of some of its most inspiring stories. This includes everything from Saroo Brierley, who used Google Earth in Australia to reconnect with the family he’d lost decades earlier as a child in India, to Psy, who used the global reach of YouTube to teach the world a new dance.

The Internet is also changing the way Asia Pacific does business. We’ve seen established companies like Sanwa Pearl & Gems in Hong Kong reinvent themselves, entrepreneurs like Australia’s custom shoe startup, Shoes of Prey, forge new business models from scratch, and developers, from China’s Chukong to Japan’s GungHo, emerge as some of the strongest smartphone developers in the world.

We have blogs and Google+ pages focused on activities in individual countries, such as Korea, Japan and Australia, but we felt it was time to take a more regional view. On this blog, we will share stories from inside and outside of Google as Asia Pacific continues turning to the Internet to grow and prosper. We hope you’ll enjoy.

Posted by Susan Pointer, Senior Director, Public Policy & Government Relations, and Mike Nelson, Vice President, Communications