GFK - here is latest from Reuters. Looks like Google bending over backwards to keep license!! Again, better to get news from mainstream media.
As it appears that when Beijing says jump, Google asks "How high" See here:
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in March, Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, had said the original decision to reroute users to the Hong Kong site was a solution indirectly proposed to the firm by the Chinese government.
Google should have just stuck to its guns and walk out. Like this no face right? You want no censorship, make big statement that you will leave China but now start grovelling when your stockprices starts falling.
Even with this China could still pull your license. If so I think stock price will drop another 30%. In internet advertising you now want global reach; without China you lose access to fastest growing economy - ones where the global luxury brands (big advertising $$) are well entrenched in China - See LV, Mercedes. RR, Porsche, Ferrari, Coach, Martell, etc etc etc
Google tweaks rerouting in fight for China business
July 8, 2010 | 15:52
- Reuters
Google Inc said it will stop automatically redirecting Web searchers in China to an uncensored portal in Hong Kong as it hopes to convince Beijing to renew its operating licence in the world’s largest Internet market.
Google’s unexpected announcement comes ahead of Wednesday’s deadline when the Internet giant’s licence is up for renewal.
“It’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable, and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider licence will not be renewed,” Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog, posted late on Monday night in the United States.
“Without an ICP licence, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn so Google would effectively go dark in China.”
Users are now required to click anywhere on the Google.cn page in order to get redirected to the Google Hong Kong search site, instead of being automatically rerouted.
Three months ago, Google closed its China-based search service and began rerouting traffic to an unfiltered search site in Hong Kong, drawing harsh comments from Beijing that raised doubts about the company’s future in China.
Google, which battles Baidu in China’s 380 million user strong Internet market, said in January it might quit the country over censorship and after it was hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that it said came from within China.
“China, with its business potential, is a hard market to give up,” said Cao Jun Bo, chief analyst at Beijing-based technology research firm iResearch.
The ICP licence is needed by every China-based website to operate in China. It is renewed every year by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, although industry sources said the process is largely procedural and it is very rare for an ICP license be to revoked at the point of renewal.
Google has already started taking a small number of users to a Google.cn site that offers a link to Google.com.hk, rather than directly to the Hong Kong page.
The new Google page is extremely simple, with an image of the Google logo and a non-functioning search box. Below are short messages saying “We have already moved to google.com.hk“ and “Please save our new website.” Clicking on much of the page redirects users to the Hong Kong site.
The Hong Kong search engine does not however offer users inside China unfettered access to information the government wants blocked, as domestic firewalls prevent connections to many websites that Beijing objects to.
The Google.hk.com site is also periodically unavailable from mainland China, and searches can be unstable.
Google’s mobile operating system, Android, which is gaining traction, is among Google’s high potential operations in China.
China Mobile has released smartphones into the China market using Android, and Credit Suisse analyst Wallace Cheung expects it to one day become the most popular mobile operating system in China.
On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry declined comment on Google’s decision to end automatic rerouting, but Drummond said he hoped it would be acceptable to the Chinese government.
It is unlikely Google would have moved without some blessing from Beijing, and there certainly would have been negotiations about the change, said iResearch analyst Cao.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in March, Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, had said the original decision to reroute users to the Hong Kong site was a solution indirectly proposed to the firm by the Chinese government.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment further on the details of the negotiations with Beijing.
But Google, which runs two research centres and has several hundred employees in China, may already have paid a price, in lost talent, for its spat with the government.
It has seen an exodus of executives at its China operations since the dispute flared up, as well as from partners collected under the umbrella of its advertising AdSense program.
“It seems clear they want to have some engagement or business in China. But they are at a point right now where an increasing number of partners and AdSense partners are leaving Google,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting.
Natkin said at least 3 other licenses for Google business units in China are due for renewal in June.
Its wide range of services could also bring other challenges in dealing with China’s authorities, who are tightly focused on control.
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