Brief: Microsoft Adding 500 Engineers In China

Microsoft plans to hire 500 more engineers for R&D in China to join a team that already has doubled in the last year to about 1,200. In five years, Microsoft expects to have 3,000 employees and have invested $100 million to make China one of its core R&D bases. The focus will be on mobile communications and embedded systems, Internet apps and services, digital entertainment, and servers, often in cooperation with local companies.

Yaqing Zhang, president of Microsoft R&D in China, says there's a shortage of experienced Chinese engineers, especially in management, and that half of the recruits will come from overseas or from the electronics industry.