Google to leave China April

[makapaaa]

Mar 19, 2010

Google to leave China April

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Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans next week, Chinese media reported. -- PHOTO: AFP

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SHANGHAI - US INTERNET giant Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans next week, Chinese media reported on Friday, after rows over censorship and hacking.
The China Business News said Google would go through with a threatened withdrawal from the country on April 10.
'We have learned that Google will leave China on April 10, but the information has not been confirmed by Google at present,' the newspaper quoted an official with an unidentified Chinese advertising agency as saying. The agency is a business partner of Google, the report said.
The report did not specify whether Google would close all or part of its operations in the country.
The newspaper quoted an unidentified Google staff member as saying the company may announce on Monday the details of its exit from China and compensation for its local staff.
Google China spokesman Marsha Wang declined to comment on the report, telling AFP only that there has been 'no update' on the company's situation. -- AFP

 

[krafty]

Bad mistake,i think! It will not dominate the world anymore as the most powerful search engine.

 

[johnny333]

Bad mistake,i think! It will not dominate the world anymore as the most powerful search engine.

Do they really need to be physically located in China

If they really need an asian office they could always move to Spore :p

 

[krafty]

They already has a office in Spore,dumb dumb...

Do they really need to be physically located in China

If they really need an asian office they could always move to Spore :p

 

[Rogue Trader]

Google has been fighting a losing battle in china for years. In china they have state-backed private search engines who would comply to censorship. And technically those local developers are not worse off than Google. in fact, many are ex google/msn/yahoo.cn employees.

 

[krafty]

is it true that Google has its own Mathematics algorithm for their search engine,just like any secret formula?

Google has been fighting a losing battle in china for years. In china they have state-backed private search engines who would comply to censorship. And technically those local developers are not worse off than Google. in fact, many are ex google/msn/yahoo.cn employees.

 

[johnny333]

They already has a office in Spore,dumb dumb...

They do

Proofs my point that having a local office is not really necessary for a business like Google. The googler isn't impacted by back end services. Only take a few msecs longer to get to the google servers in Spore, US,...

 

[krafty]

i think it's possible cos' they don't have china Google servers to consolidate china local websites?Imagine you can't find things in china with a Google search engine.:(

Unless they collaborate with the search engines in China,meaning whatever pple key in google,the china search engines will on behalf search for them?you think feasible?

They do

Proofs my point that having a local office is not really necessary for a business like Google. The googler isn't impacted by back end services. Only take a few msecs longer to get to the google servers in Spore, US,...

 

[Rogue Trader]

is it true that Google has its own Mathematics algorithm for their search engine,just like any secret formula?

Google technology is not so much "superior" as it is "very intelligently applied". For example, they focus on the relationship of info instead of searching the entire web for search terms. Based on this they have very good artificial intelligence.
Another example of Google innovation is how they use wrong data to their advantage. they monitor all the spelling mistakes people make to build their search term suggestion function.

 

[johnny333]

Unless they collaborate with the search engines in China,meaning whatever pple key in google,the china search engines will on behalf search for them?you think feasible?

Unlikely to happen as China is still a communist country.

I'm not surprised they pulled out. Its a no win situation If they are going against the authorities

One one hand they got criticised for trying to appease the Chinese authorities for self-censorship. On the other, Chinese tried to hack onto their system for users data.

China is a tough market to crack. Temasek got clobbered in China. The tainted milk, lead paint,....

Google might be doing the smart thing by pulling out & cutting their losses.

 

[Alamaking]

Sore loser lah Google, they should grit their teeth and hang on, its not about the censorship all these, they lost to Baidu in chinese search engine also.

 

[huahero]

This only mean that US cannot compete with China head on. I miss Cowboy Bush!

 

[johnny333]

Sore loser lah Google, they should grit their teeth and hang on, its not about the censorship all these, they lost to Baidu in chinese search engine also.

Yeah hang on just like what Temasek is doing. Loss after losses.

Temasek can keep on squeezing $$$ from Sporeans but Google has to answer to their shareholders.

MNCs are driven by the bottom line,
If China office is not profitable they are simply redirecting their resources to more profitable ventures.

 

[elephanto]

Recently when my bro ,based in beijing (with family), is back for CNY & told me they have a China google-like site called 谷姐 becos google in chinese is 谷哥, i tot he is joking .... it is no laffing matter, google is in no-win situation in China .... cry wolf so long at last charbut ....

 

[johnny333]

.. it is no laffing matter, google is in no-win situation in China .... cry wolf so long at last charbut ....

When Apple 1st sold the iPhones in China they had to sell version of the iPhones without WiFi.

Hard to operate in a market with such rules. Even in Spore there are no NGO groups allowed here because the PAP gov't doesn't want groups they can't control.

 

[Alamaking]

Yeah hang on just like what Temasek is doing. Loss after losses.

Temasek can keep on squeezing $$$ from Sporeans but Google has to answer to their shareholders.

MNCs are driven by the bottom line,
If China office is not profitable they are simply redirecting their resources to more profitable ventures.

Pls lah, you think Google invested as much as Temasek meh? 2 different market -_-", no matter what, China IS a big market, its how you can capitalize it at the right time.

I saw the news in CNN, Baidu search engine occupy 82%, while yahoo around 12%. Both Yahoo and Google lost in Chinese words search engine, they need time get used to Chinese market.

Anyway, am dissapointed with Google decision to pull out. :p:p:p

 

[johnny333]

Pls lah, you think Google invested as much as Temasek meh? 2 different market -_-", no matter what, China IS a big market, its how you can capitalize it at the right time.

Even if China is a big mkt, if Baidu already has 82% of the mkt . Google has little stake in China & pulling out isn't a big thing to them. They may return in the future when China feels more comfortable with democracy.

As for Temasek, they may be in a different mkt but they have already lost billions & haven't learned their lessons. Just look at the mistakes they've made in Indonesia, Thailand,... More importantly they don't know when its time to cut their losses eg buy high, sell low

Everyone like to talk about the opportunities in China but let's not forget the difficulties. Companies like KFC, MacD are taking a very long term view & they are not facing obstacles from the authorities, which Google is.

Some businesses just cannot succeed in China.

 

[krafty]

not really, i was in a Canadian telco startup before,one of the staff is actually a 大官的儿子， boss then managed to secure contracts with major telco companies. His presence also helped my ex-boss's other ventures in China.so you see...It's actually who you know and the strings pulling.

Some businesses just cannot succeed in China.

 

[Alamaking]

Even if China is a big mkt, if Baidu already has 82% of the mkt . Google has little stake in China & pulling out isn't a big thing to them. They may return in the future when China feels more comfortable with democracy.

As for Temasek, they may be in a different mkt but they have already lost billions & haven't learned their lessons. Just look at the mistakes they've made in Indonesia, Thailand,... More importantly they don't know when its time to cut their losses eg buy high, sell low

Everyone like to talk about the opportunities in China but let's not forget the difficulties. Companies like KFC, MacD are taking a very long term view & they are not facing obstacles from the authorities, which Google is.

Some businesses just cannot succeed in China.

Thats why i said Google pulling out for China is a big loss to them mah.

Your comparisons to Google with Temasek and KFC/McDonalds is not appropriate lah, pengz -_-"

 

[johnny333]

not really, i was in a Canadian telco startup before,one of the staff is actually a 大官的儿子， boss then managed to secure contracts with major telco companies. His presence also helped my ex-boss's other ventures in China.so you see...It's actually who you know and the strings pulling.

In your example the Canada telco(Is it Northern Bell?) had good connections. Both sides see the that its profitable.

In Google's case they have come up against the authorities. The ones with the strings. There can be no compromise. If Google gives up the identity/records of the chinese dissenters they'll be lambasted by the west, loose credibility among chinese users.