SINGAPORE-BASED Bigo Technology will be opening regional centres in India, the Middle East and the US by the end of the year. It plans to invest over US$500 million into developing these hubs.

The Internet technology company, which has over 40 patents in VoIP/Video related technology with 60 pending patents in the pipeline, said that it is investing US$100 million for the first three years in India first, to expand its operations. This will create over 1,000 jobs in the country and create cross-country learning opportunities for both Singaporean and Indian employees.

The company told The Business Times that it is looking to create close to 200 jobs for AI (artificial intelligence) developers and engineers in Singapore.

It aims to bring the total number of offices to 20 regional offices and four regional centres by the end of 2019.

Bigo Live, its flagship live-streaming product, has over 200 million users in over 100 regions. Another short video app, LIKE, has reached 20 million daily active users around the globe, the company said.

Co-founder and Chief technology officer Jason Hu said: "We have set our sights on expanding into India as the first region of three. India will act as a complementary centre to Singapore's research and development centre. This bold step is the first of its kind for Bigo, and a testament to the growing need for overseas centres as our user base grows."