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Google vs. China — Who's Got the Most To Lose?
Barence writes "Google looks set to pull out of China, but who will suffer most? The search engine or China? At last week's South by Southwest conference, Kaiser Kuo, a former director of digital strategy for the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency in China, gave an illuminating talk that examined the history of Google and other Western internet firms in China, their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the likely outcomes of the current stalemate. Kuo explained that Google had earned the respect of the tech-savvy urban elite by protecting users, making censorship clear and by protecting its employees in China. That means Google is walking away from a 35% market share, which contains a far wealthier demographic than local provider Baidu. The Government, meanwhile, which has been very pro-competition, is about to hand a complete monopoly to Baidu, harm its international standing and the development of net technologies in the country. Is it a lose-lose situation?"
Link now up, although still a little light on details at the moment, expect updates soon.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Google is now redirecting to uncensored results via Google.hk, and they have a page showing what services China is blocking so they can track it in a transparent way. Take a look: http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en
Google just posted to their blog what they're doing.
They're redirecting all their users to http://google.com.hk/ and are maintaining a China service availability page to update on the status of their services in mainland China.
They also plan on maintaining their presence in China for sales and development, though they say that sales will be dependent on whether the .hk page is blocked.
That number sounds about right.. just google it.
Second result in google from over a year ago breaking 30%
~Mekkah
Also, when redirected to the HK page it is in the style of the mainland page, not the original HK page, and it is in simplified, not traditional, characters. When accessing the page in simplified characters it also gives a message: Welcome to the new home of Google China.
Do not anger the worm.
The only part of Google's business that is leaving China is the search engine. Their other divisions (mobile phone with Android, advertising, etc) are staying put. They have a lot of avenues through which to offer their products to the Chinese. The search engine is their core tool, but it isn't their only one.