Google China could be ceasing operations in April, says report
By Ross Miller 
posted March 18th 2010 11:27PM
posted March 18th 2010 11:27PM
Just when you were hoping things would get better for the bickering search giant and nation-state, along comes apparent word from Shanghai-based Chinese Business News (via Bloomberg), citing an anonymous Google China employee, that the company is looking into closing up shop on April 10th. That's a far cry from what we heard late last week, that it would stay in the country, albeit in a potentially modified form. Frankly, this is quite sketchy and no one anywhere is corroborating, but according to the report, an announcement is expected on Monday, March 22nd. Better get used to the idea of Bing-powered Android devices.
It's China's loss. Like the saying goes... "Communism is the longest path to Capitalism."
@shishi how is this China's loss? Back up your claim. Google is not the only search engine, and not even in the leading search engine in China.
@Kaitou KID
And Google isn't only a search engine. They provide great free tools for small businesses, something that China needs.
@enex good point but the pressure is actually on Google to answer to those companies what they're going to do. There was a recent engadget post about it I believe. As in life, there are always alternatives and google isn't the only resource companies have. This is a delicate position for Google, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
@Kaitou KID
I meant the Chinese people. It's their loss because they have one less option to search and use the Internet, and be informed. They will continue with the government filter of the truth.
Second, technology. We all know China copies everything and infringes patents shamelessly. In other words, they depend almost exclusively on foreign technology and ideas to drive their industry. With Google, they loose a potential partner.
Furthermore, it's eye-opening how some forget that China is, after all, a Communist state, with all that ensues. They're growing like crazy, artificially inflating their currency, and are the makers of things*, but after all they don't have the most precious of things: Liberty.
* mostly bottom-quality crap.
@shishi good point, you're right it is bad for the people, but hey it's not like they can vote. Another thing that should change.
If Google does pull out, they better not come back again or I'll be the first one pointing at them laughing.
@Pork I'll bet they're on pins and needles awaiting your reaction.
My baidu shares are in for some more good news! Don't here no complaints from apple, Microsoft, yahoo, gm, Dell etc... Sounds like google can't make it there, has had no problem censoring since it's been in China or even now it still hasn't stopped censoring. It's funny all this broke when the Chinese writers confronted google about google stealing intellectual property - scanning books without permission. Looks likes googles tactic of threatening to leave has backfired. Watch the stocks
Because Google obviously isn't providing NSA free access to your search records?
Regardless of censorship or money, I'm glad google is not expanding to become skynet. One less country to occupy, internet-wise.
I wonder whether I could use google.com in china.
Queue the chinese nationalists. I can already see two of them (Kaitou KID and pika2000). Question to these sinophiles, can you go to Wikipedia and read the artcile on Operation Aurora where a chinese dissident Gmail account was hacked by the chinese government?
@enex lol oh noes!!11 he called me a chinese commie nationalist I guess I should stop correcting people when they post bs and try to pass it off as facts. btw i like how you assume all people interested in china and follow china news are chinese. some of us just wanna make big bucks and learn about the country as much as we can. kthx
@Kaitou KID
???
I didn't call you chinese or a commie. Don't bother replying if you can't read.
@enex alright it's just that when you said I was a "chinese nationalist" I thought you meant I was chinese. Maybe you meant I was a non-chinese chinese nationalist, is that correct?
@Kaitou KID
I think anyone that defends the chinese government in censoring Google qualifies as a chinese nationalist as I don't know what else you could be.
@enex wow man point out to me where I defend the chinese govt. I like freedom buddy, that's why I'm in the states. I don't like my internet censored, or speech or anything really. All I said was that this is not a decision about morality, but rather about money. Where did you get I support the chiense govt in any way????? Very odd...
@enex
do you have any idea what the Vocational School is?
From what I heard and according to the school website, it is for high school dropouts or the kids who cannot pass the Chinese ACT get into college. They train cooker and hair stylists for god sake.
Unless Chinese get their own Buymore and Chuck, it is safe to say the Langley get fxxked
@enex Way to be mature when you start calling people with different opinion names. Do some more research, get your facts straight, and trying bring someone other than your cousin to prom.
The Congress could be behind this. Read Commission Recommendations "Monitoring the role of U.S. companies in Internet censorship." - http://www.uscc.gov/annual_report/2009/annual_report_full_09.pdf
@kjmathew Oh! And China is behind the current economic mess (and a whole lot more) - "The policies that China adopted generated a huge flow of liquidity—
or money that can be easily lent to borrowers—into U.S.
markets. This excess liquidity created perverse incentives in the
United States that encouraged banks to make risky loans to U.S.
households, which in turn grew ever more indebted. High U.S.
demand for imports allowed China to save even more, creating
a vicious cycle and laying the foundation for the current crisis." - http://www.uscc.gov/annual_report/2009/annual_report_full_09.pdf
It's definitely China's loss. In technology Baidu is no match for Google. With Baidu you can find plenty of superstar gossip and chit-chat. But when it comes to serious research or acadmic purpose, Google is currently the best and only reliable tool here. Actually all Chinese search engines share the same problems preventing them from being something of serious/business usage:
A) Redundency. Every piece of information from such search engines tend to be quoted and requoted for at least a dozen times.
B) Extreme lack of international resources.
And visit the international version? No way. The communist party (a.k.a BIG DADDY) is now quite pissed off. Remember we have a Great Firewall (or try search #GFW on twitter)? If Google pulls out on April 10th, on 11th in the morning you will find Google.com out of everyone's access for "mysterious" reason.
It's quite hard to convince me Google did this totally because of money. Because:
A) Google's revenue from China is quite minor compared to the big picture.
B) 30%, way behind Baidu, but that is quite something. At least enough to feed its local team.
C) Even if the revenue isn't enough, it's not likely Google will give a wince burning money on a promising branch. You see the money-eater YouTube? How much has Google poured into that? And how much they got back? Are they still doing that site? Hell of course!
So the logic of @Kaitou KID could basically be summarized as:
"Google is doing bad in China, not bad as losing money, but no biggie for its appetite. Out of humiliation it decides to play it insane and then pull out." Man, I'm really having trouble believing this is something coming out of the head of a company, any company.
@Chassit if a company does something that doesn't bring it financial gain either in the short term or long term (i.e. increasing public support and bettering its public image) then that company is run badly. Not sure why you're arguing with me on this point. Money is everything and that's all there is. It all comes back to money. I'm not saying google is pulling out for whatever reason, keep it mind it hasn't done jack squat yet. It's all talk at this point. Wait until they really do pull out if they ever do then we'll talk.
@Kaitou KID
Exactly my points: money.
Google isn't taking significant loss, or rather they are making some profit right now in mainland China. Due to this very money cause, Google should NOT perform a pull out in its sane mind.
If Google's performance by your standard is "losing money", then how do you explain Chinese websites such as Ku6, Youku, Tudou, who have been making huge negative revenue for a coupple of years and now barely balancing it out? How about aforementioned Youtube? And Twitter who appears to be making little money despite the huge traffic?
In the real business world, temporary balance sheet is the last thing to be worried of when A) you've got enough VC to feed you B) you've got a hell of a huge parental company coverying your *ss.
And how much money do you think Microsoft is making here? Bing is bashed to oblivion, over 90% of Windows OS sold are pirated, not to mention they have a super big team located not far from my company. TTalking about money, this bugger should be the first to retreat eh?
@Chassit alright I think you think I know more than I actually do because you think I'm saying more than I'm saying. I'm just saying it's all about money. Maybe pulling out is more lucrative for google, for example, a big PR boost from taking on an oppressive country like China that seems to stand for exactly the opposite of American liberty and choice may be more lucrative. Not to mention, again, they haven't done anything yet. Still just talk. I mean, knowing the kind of things the chiense govt does, and the whole censorship why would you go in that environment in the first place if you cared about morals more than money?
@Kaitou KID
1. It's never too late to pick up good morality
2. With almost 30 years living here and seeing the way Chinese government get things done, I'm 99.9% sure Google *WILL* get into action, willingly or not. It's impossible for it to mess around for long. I'm just hoping it could happen sooner. What's done can't be undone. And a quite bad chain-reaction is waiting to happen.
3. If necessary, I could summarize a much better guess on the probable reason Google.cn is dong what it's doing right the moment. There sure are better bets than "money". Up to your call, man. But right now I've got something with payment to do, so talking back later.
4. The internet business here has taken a very nasty turn since Google established its Chinese branch. Now bloggers are being arrested, micro-blogging service providers are being forced to shutdown (temporarily or permanently), the state is taking tight control and interest in many internet sectors, even Baidu has been ransomed once. Pull out right now seems to be a reasonable although not really good decision.
OK, some more.
I'm a Chinese who's doing a business researcher job. Although I'm a die-hard Microsoft fanboy, I've got to admit none of my job could be done if there isn't Google.
However, I do hope Google could do the pull out trick faster. Actually it should have got into action last month. The search engine is going to slap commie daddy and piss it off no matter what. If you have to do that, why not slap it quick, loud and hard?
Stickin it to the man, Google you are my hero !!!
Time to pick up some Baidu stock.
靠
Some of you think Google is the champion of freedom fighting this for the rest of you. Well, I don't see you taking part in the fight to remove mosaics from Japanese porn. How about making violent films viewable to all in the States? Every government sees the need to keep certain content from some or all of its populace. Without prescribed boundaries, there is no freedom.
Personally, I think the Chinese censorship is overdoing it. However, we should be aware of the consequences once it's removed. Social disorder may multiply, resulting in clashes between the government and the people. Frankly, I don't see the government losing. Censorship is a preemptive measure to prevent unnecessary bloodshed in China. It's also a measure to protect China from outside influences.
What the censorship represents is the instability of the Chinese political system. The instability, however, does not mean it's bad. People will always want more freedom, whether it's good or bad for them. I'm interested in seeing China maintain their system so we can see how it turns out in the long run.
@onlymyrailgun
Mmmm. Interesting. If I got you right, you're saying that having access to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr (blocked occassionally), Google Docs, Google Sites, CNN, BBC, and such are equal to removing mosaic in Japanese porno and broadcasting violence movies to all ages...?
Can't agree this is "overdoing it". At bad times even Engadget was blocked for about a week here. If "stability" must come with the repression of the intellegence of a whole race, I'd say revolution is sometimes quite necessary then.
Google is no champion. It's just a company who did the right thing at the right time for whatever reason. If the wind, the humidity and temperature are just right, the sparks generated by its action may be able to light a very, very long fuse, which leads to a big barrel of explosive change. Chinese people have all the patience in the universe to behold.
@Chassit
You got me right. I may be exaggerating here but, Youtube = anyone can upload any vid, even those containing some poor kid being bullied at school (not to mention riots), Facebook = where all the anti-government groups band together to plot against the authority, Twitter = allowing some random dude to brainwash the masses every 2 seconds (the government wants to do it themselves), CNN = anti-muslim, anti-commie propaganda (I visit it several times a day, and sometimes it's like that).
That's possibly how the Chinese "commies" view these sites. I don't know, but they've gotta be a threat to be censored. Yes, they are essentially equal to porn mosaics and movie/game ratings, because there are also people who don't agree with the latter.
I am blessed to have access to everything (presumably) on the Internet, but I'm also fully aware that this is a privilege, not a right. Some guy in this thread pointed out that due to the supposed inferiority of Baidu, the Chinese will be beset with certain disadvantages in research, etc. They'll also be isolated from the rest of the world.
Quite true. But is this really the time for us to try and start a revolution in China? They have undergone no less than 3 revolutions in the past century. At this stage of their cultural and economic development, frankly I think democracy and freedom will do them more harm than good. Let them try to fix it themselves first. They can have all the goodies later.
Also, not trying to dis India or anything, but being the only democratic entity whose population rivals that of China, it doesn't appear to have fixed many of its problems. True, they are quite an economic powerhouse now, and are growing rapidly, but did it get rid of unnecessary poverty, racism and in particular, the caste system? Where's that constitutional equality? Democracy won't fix the problems on day 1. Let them find their own solutions.
I live in HONG KONG and I don't have any problems with google leaving.I support my government fully.
BTW I'm not Chinese ,moved to hong kong along time ago
Bwahahahahaa....F.U.G !!!
LOL Is this the same Google that bent to Austarlia's censorship demands? Sounds like a good excuse for their failing China division.
In the war of China vs. Google, I think we all know China wins. They own half of the US and the world already. What can a tech company do to win against a hyper-power, NOTHING.