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Report: Google Will Return To China

Posted by Soulskill on from the part-2-the-revenge dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Google famously withdrew from mainland China in 2010 after fending off a series of cyberattacks from local sources. Now, according to a (paywalled) report from The Information, the company is working on plans to return. "As part of the deal Google is looking to strike, Google would follow the country's laws and block apps that the government objects to, one person told The Information." They're also seeking approval for a Chinese version of Google Play.

20 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Folding@Home by sims+2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So I guess we can say google is Folding@Home?

    Seriously though the blockade should stand.

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    1. Re:Folding@Home by Tokolosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is it evil to kowtow to evil?

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      Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    2. Re:Folding@Home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That google slogan of "dont' be evil" has been nothing but a scam.

    3. Re:Folding@Home by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Seriously though the blockade should stand.

      Leaving China was a mistake. Google's departure accomplished nothing. Google should be in China, to offer people an alternative, even if it is imperfect.

    4. Re:Folding@Home by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Now they will have the choice between Crippled engine A and Govt run index B.

      They can still access Google outside China by using a VPN. Since porn is censored in China, nearly every post-pubescent male already has access to a working VPN.

    5. Re:Folding@Home by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Pretty much.

      Seriously, if I wanted to run an authoritarian regime restricting internet content, there are certain things that would be absolutely left unblocked, namely porn and cat memes/videos.

    6. Re:Folding@Home by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We've got faculty who regularly travel to China - their access to our university VPN service is routinely interfered with.

      They should ask some teenage boys for help. It also makes a huge difference where they are in China. Censorship is very heavy in Beijing, but much lighter in Shanghai and even lighter in smaller cities. It is heavy in Tibet, but much lighter in Xinjiang. That is because Westerners care about the Tibetans because Brad Pitt and Richard Gere made movies about them. But Westerners don't give a crap about the Uighurs.

    7. Re:Folding@Home by fulldecent · · Score: 2

      Yes, China beat the network effect problem by:

          1. Jumping in early
          2. Ruthlessly blocking competition

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      -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

    8. Re:Folding@Home by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 2

      Are you sure? I've been to China multiple times. Some observations:
      - OpenVPN connections are killed at the handshake. Workaround is hide the handshake; there are multiple ways to do this.
      - SSH (allows tunneling) worked fine when I was there this summer. One time, in 2014, it seemed to degrade over time. But this probably was just been my imagination, because of the following:

      CHINA'S INTERNATIONAL PEERING SUCKS ASS. It doesn't matter if you have a T1 at home: international connections are going to be slow as molasses. A lot of people say China "degrades VPNs", but my observation is more that the country just has bad peering to other countries. You can get fast domestic Internet access, but international sites and servers -- the ones that aren't blocked -- are going to be slow and unreliable, because the upstream peering is running at something like 200% capacity, and your packets are going to get frequently dropped.

      Now, an interesting question is whether their international peering sucks on purpose as an extension of their censorship. Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the case, you can get an uncensored proxy out very easily, but expect some slowness and unpleasantness. Not because they're using some super-duper magic proxy-degrading technology, though. That's probably not happening. If they catch you, they'll probably just cut you off, not slow you down. What's probably happening is that China's international peering sucks, and you're running into the congestion.

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      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
  2. Somebody had to sell Hitler the ovens by John+Jorsett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess it's too much to expect any company, even the "do no evil" one, to stand up for principle when there's so much money at stake.

  3. Today's doodle links to Godwin by paiute · · Score: 2

    Google also announced that they were taking their new time machine back a few years to get into the German market, promising Mr. Hitler that they would block any Jewish-related content.

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  4. Re:Well jeeze! C'mon... by bob_super · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "money has no smell" Old proverb

  5. Re:Well jeeze! C'mon... by sims+2 · · Score: 2

    Lets say you manufacture a universal translator and you want to sell it in another country they already have a local manufacturer that produces a local version that happens to only support chinese simplified to chinese traditional and back.

    Now to sell your product in their country they require you to cripple your translator that works with any language to only make fart noises unless its chinese simplified to chinese traditional or vice versa.

    On one hand it opens you up to a large underserved market.
    On the other hand manufacturing the inferior product would greatly damage your brand.

    What would you choose?

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  6. Re:This is really depressing by sims+2 · · Score: 2

    Hobby Lobby.

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  7. Only Google could go to China by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Funny

    old Vulcan paraphrase

  8. that's doing evil. by swschrad · · Score: 2

    if the Chinese won't allow free internet access, Google should not be there.

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    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  9. Re:Well jeeze! C'mon... by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    What would you choose?

    Whichever comes out mathematically ahead. I wouldn't have to 'choose' anything.

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    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  10. Play Store? What's the point by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Unfortunately the ship has sailed for Google. The App store model relies on a monopoly on the phones. China is a country where everyone has an Android phone and none of them come with the Play Store. Instead there are many alternate stores catering specifically to the Chinese market with Chinese apps. Why would you want an app store to enter the market which no one can understand?

  11. don't be merely evil by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    don't be evil, be greedy.

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    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  12. Re: Expat in China by cyber-vandal · · Score: 2

    They know their news sources lie

    If only more westerners were prepared to accept that.