Google to shut China search engine

"99.9 per cent" certain to go ahead

[bill]

Google plans to pull its search engine out of China...

Google to shut China search engine [ft.com]

Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also on Friday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving.

...but it is leaving itself the option to continue selling ads.

Google’s executives have made it clear that they still hope to stay in the country, whatever the fate of Google.cn. “It’s very important to know we are not pulling out of China,” Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, told the Financial Times at the time. “We have a good business in China. This is about the censorship rules, not anything else.”

The company’s other operations, which pre-date the launch of Google.cn four years ago, include its research centre in Beijing and a sales force that sells advertising on the Chinese-language Google.com search service, based outside China, to advertisers inside the country.

[J_RaD]

they went into china knowing full well about internet sensorship. Why do they do an about face and pull out because of it.

its china, play by their rules or leave. You are just a COMPANY.

[JS_Harris]

Good, and Chinese citizens who don't like it need to complain to their own government, not Google.

Google needs to follow through and leave or comply in full. It's their country and their rules. Starting fights that threaten to turn into bigger fights and drag entire countries into the mix should be avoided at all costs, there's more important things in life than money.

The US can't afford to make an enemy of China anyway, "rare earths" for example can only be processed in China and are critical in building the ipads, iphones and other technological "toys" we enjoy.

[redstorm]

How to say! My conclusion is it's a lose-lose result for both sides. You guy will know it!

[yaix2]

Who knows what's actually happening behind the scenes. Basically every country has some sort of censorship, and G knew about Chinese laws before starting up in China.

[walkman]

I bet they have to quintuple check each line of code from their 'research Center' in China for hidden trojans.

[impact]

This was inevitable. Google does not care about others privacy while, China takes extra care.

With google's ideology they can never work in China. Google knew it, Chinese knew it. Google found the hacking excuse as the best bet to exit China, while Chinese pointed out google's inability to follow Chinese rules to kick google out of China.

I think it is a win win situation for both.

[tangor]

Dab of white paint. Dab of black paint. Mix'em together. Grey. Mix'em a bunch and still grey...

Note g is looking to stop serving serps...but will continue ads. Seems to me one more indication they are an advertising company, not a search engine. But what do I know? :)

[callivert]

Fantastic move, Google! Congratulations.
This was a totally ethical decision, and one that will protect their long term brand and reputation.
Yes, perhaps they knew beforehand that they were dealing with a regime that doesn't value free speech; but maybe they got sucked up in the China hype and thought they would figure out a compromise as they went along. That didn't pan out.
At least they realized the deal was wrong and pulled out. There's still time to wipe the dirt off.

[Jo555]

If G makes a decision by ethics, then does it make all decisions by ethics? If yes then it will no longer be a business, it will be a political organization. Probably no.

Then they make decisions by ethics sometimes, but based on business interestes other times? Probably yes.
Then after all either case they make desisions for their business interests, ethnical or not ethnical. Ethnics is just a powerful tool for them. Whenever possible they just use it.
That's what its government has been doing and G may learn well from it by cooperating with its government.

If it is true then that`s not just hypocrisy, by using double standards or different standards, it is nothing but abuses of ethnics such freedom or human rights or whatever.

[Eurydice]

This has nothing to do with "ethics." The US government has a backdoor key to ALL Google accounts. They monitor everything.

Google is playing chicken with the Chinese government. They drew up contingency plans months ago. They leaked the plans to the Financial Times.

It's not over until it's over.

[callivert]

The US government has a backdoor key to ALL Google accounts.

There are several insinuations in this thread that Google is an agent of the US government. It isn't.

[bill]

That doesn't read as an insinuation that Google is an agent of the US government. It sounds like an insinuation that Google cooperates with the US government far more than they let on. That is highly likely given what I've read.

[tntpower]

GOOG is too political.

I wish GOOG all the best by getting rewards from Hilary.

[tntpower]

My only concern is if GGOD withdraws from China, how about its ongoing lawsuit over illegally scanning Chinese authors' books?

[tangor]

There is a long history of difficulty in doing business with China. Read your history books, particularly those not edited by liberati. Current economic dealings with China are approaching ordinary trade, yet there is still the ideological differences to be considered. Personally, I don't think google knew what they were getting into as China's ideology is so diametrically opposed to google's mission.

[bill]

Google hasn't announced anything yet, but according to the article linked to in the first post they will only be withdrawing their search engine. They will still leave some part of their operations to deal with other things like advertising.

[engine]

Google Yet To Re-Register As Content Provider In China [guardian.co.uk]

Google missed a deadline to re-register as an "internet content provider" (ICP) in China last night, which observers say is a sign that it is preparing to shut down its search engine there.

Google UK denied the reports, saying that the ICP licence – required by the Chinese government for companies which want to operate a website inside the country – only has to be renewed annually before the end of March. "It's a bit early for such speculation," said a spokesman.

[bill]

Google May Shut Down China Unit in April [bloomberg.com]

Google Inc. may pull out of China on April 10, China Business News reported today, citing an unidentified Chinese sales agent for the company.

The search engine may announce its exit on March 22, the Shanghai-based newspaper reported, citing an unidentified Google China employee. It may also reveal plans for its China staff on the same day, according to the report.

Google hasn’t confirmed the April 10 date for its pullout, the newspaper cited the sales agent as saying.

[engine]

I guess we don't have long to wait to find out if 22nd is the announcement date.

[walkman]

China's instructions on reporting on Google

[chinadigitaltimes.net...]
All chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens' discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:

A. News section:

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources.

2. Reposting must not change title.

3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites.

4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting.

5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden.
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6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.