Google 3rd headquarter is in Argentina

The Mountain View, Calif., search engine opened an office in Buenos Aires which will be the headquarters of its Latin American operations, company executives said Thursday.

"Argentina will be the third-largest headquarters for Google business development in the world, after those in California and Ireland," Gonzalo Alonso, Google's director general for Latin America's Spanish-speaking countries, said at a press conference in Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires office also will manage some clients of its operations in Spain, Alonso said.

Alonso, who will head the Buenos Aires office, said the company is making "an important bet" in the country, but declined to say how much Google is investing in Argentina and how many jobs it will create.

Highlighting the company's commitment in the region, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt made a surprise appearance at the press conference.

Alonso said Google chose Argentina as its regional headquarters due to the Argentine people's entrepreneurial spirit, to the high number of Internet users, and the good quality of Argentine software developers.

He denied that the decision was based on Argentina's low costs resulting from the weak peso, the local currency which trades at around ARS3.10 against the U.S. dollar. "Costs-based decisions are short-term," he said.

Vamos muchachos todavia! :)