In 2006, Google started a censored, China-localized version of Google, google.cn, reasoning that even a censored google-powered search engine is better than none at all.
In December, someone tried to hack into a bunch of Google’s servers, with an eye towards digging up info on Chinese democracy activists. Google appears to think that the PRC government did it: Official Google Blog: A new approach to China
Google has not taken this quietly. Their blog post says they’re going to start talking to the PRC government about operating google.cn without censoring the content, legally. In the meantime, they seem to have cried havoc and turned off the censorship regardless of the law: Google
That page is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen on the Internet. It is a giant “NO” to those who would blinker the eyes, deafen the ears, and muzzle the mouths of their own citizens. It won’t last long - I’ve no doubt the PRC will block google.cn quickly. But the sudden disappearance of a major search engine (not the most popular in china, I believe, but certainly widely used) will be noticed. And it’ll motivate more people, perhaps, to learn how bypass the Great Firewall of China.
I’ve long admired Google’s technical prowess. Today, I admire the humanity of its leaders.
Not kowtowing to government censorship and malpractices? Totally.
Increased publicity for Chinese human rights violations? Yup.
Effect on actual human rights practices? Negligible, probably.
Increased informational isolation of Chinese people? Yes.
Google China employees uncertain future? Yup, it must suck to be them right now.
What do you feel this move will accomplish (besides improving Google PR and causing a drop in their stock price)?
Well, as long as one is not in a totally cynical mood, one might hope that it will be an important step in the continued process of showing that the Chinese government is still a repressive state, and will encourage movement towards more open information sharing in that country.
Hey, I like to think I’m fairly cynical myself, but it’s hard to see a big revenue opportunity here. An uncensored google.cn just isn’t going to remain accessible for very long - it won’t generate much money in adviews. I suppose it’s possible the goodwill Google generates from this will help sales of their new phone or something - but I really, really can’t begrudge them that, and I’d be amazed if that’s why they did it.
And hey, even if it is partly motivated by the desire for a buck - there’s nothing wrong with “doing well by doing good.”
If I remember correctly, China is the only country in the world where Google doesn’t lead in market share. Baidu comprises something like two third of China’s searches.
This shouldn’t be meant to bash Google–it’s still risking a very solid foothold in a market that will be extremely lucrative–but it does provide some context on why it’s not as potentially costly as it first appears.
Not true at all. I remember a couple of years ago that Google was not liked in several foreign countries because it was too plain and the search results were poor. The one country that I know for a fact, besides China, where Google doesn’t do well at all is South Korea. Naver consists of 70% of the searches in South Korea. I believe that Yahoo is still the top search engine in Japan.
It could be the equivalent of non-official sanctions which would harm their economic growth. I have read China needs to keep their GDP growth at 8% or higher to avoid mass unemployment and social unrest. If companies start pulling up and leaving because of human rights abuses China might not make their economic growth goals.
Well, googs has certainly thrown down the gauntlet. The fireworks will be interesting to watch. Certainly China is not a big market for Google and their market share here is pretty weak.
I don’t think this move will accomplish anything except maybe some good press in the US.
The other thing is that Google is making claims that the Chinese government is trying to hack. Please keep in mind that the “Chinese Government” is a huge, multi-headed beast. I would bet that if the allegations are true, it’s a rogue element.
Kai-fu Lee, who ran google China abruptly left a few months ago: “Mr Liu took the helm at Google China last September after the abrupt departure of Kaifu Lee, the company’s previous China head. Mr Lee’s departure was prompted by a series of attacks on Google by the Chinese government, which accused the US company of not limiting access to pornography through its search engine. Since September, Google has slimmed its Chinese office to a skeleton, recalling several engineers to the US.”
Note: At the request of the OP, I merged a GD thread with one originally started in MPSIMS, which is reading as the current OP. If there’s a little funkiness in the flow of the thread (e.g., Oakminster’s pair of virtually identical posts, which were originally in two different threads), that’s what happened.
In premarket trading this morning shares of Baidu are up ~16% and Google down ~2%. Jumping to conclusions and judging only on this very limited info, apparently the market is viewing this as a big opportunity for Baidu rather than damaging to Google.
I think Google ought come up with a way for people to bypass then, their stupid government. Maybe a free satellite internet just beamed there or something? That might reach opposition leaders and then get word out, I realize it is not the solution for common people there.
Google could also make much more fun of the bad leaders, doctor up some photos of them to look stupid and drooling or beating people saying they are perfect, because of the respect thing in the east. Don’t give them any of that respect. I’d love to see more of that right here as well. making fun of CEO’s and bankers stealing millions, maybe we could get a movement to tax away their stealing bonuses??
It seems to me that it was done because the cost, (working with China’s government and getting extra hack attacks in order to operate there), was more than they believed they would be returned in the long term. That’s the only way the equation works and still makes sense to me as a business decision. Turning off the filtering seems like they are broadcasting that they aren’t interested in being there in the future.
It is a good (at least non-negative) PR move pretty much everywhere except China.
On a related note, my Google-fu has failed me. Does anyone have stats on how many searches google.cn has been asked to do since they stopped filtering?
Is there any evidence that “will be extremely lucrative” is likely? It seems to me that “potential for growth due to large population” amounts to a lot of wishful thinking, given the degree of government control.
Note that I ask out of ignorance – not only am I ignorant of the Chinese markets, I also don’t really know what would qualify as good evidence of lucrativeness. Perhaps examples of non-Chinese businesses that have panned out?
