Last Friday, Google announced the departure of Kai-Fu Lee, President of  Google China. Considering Kai-Fu’s popularity and talent, it is largely seen as bad news for Google in it’s quest to gain market share or claw some market share away from Baidu.

So what next for Google?
Kai-Fu has left the reigns in the hands of  two Google Executives who succeed him in the Engineering and Sales disciplines… and it looks like a re-structure is on the cards, that is likely to include a ramp-up in hiring new talent for their Beijing and Shanghai offices.

What next for Kai-Fu Lee?
Well according to the blogosphere he has left to establish his own venture. This is exciting because many ex-Googlers in Silicon Valley have been at the forefront of many innovative startups over the years. It’ll be interesting to see what Lee has up his sleeve… and how his venture will help feed a burgeoning eco-system of Asia tech startups.
Update: TechCrunch are reporting that Kai-Fu Lee will be starting an incubator  entity called Innovation Works with a plan to hire some of the best Chinese engineers, nurture them and then help them spin off their ideas.

If you have some time, here’s an hour long lecture by Kai-Fu Lee at the University of Carnegie Mellon where he discusses Google’s relative successes in China (Feb 2008)…