Google Pulls Back From China, Redirects Google.cn to google.com.hk

[engine]

Google Pulls Back From China, Redirects Google.cn to google.com.hk [googleblog.blogspot.com]

earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.

[Rugles]

Here is the link to the MSNBC story if anyone wants to read it:

[msnbc.msn.com...]

[Hugene]

Respect to G for this move. It's about time somebody stood-up to the commercial bullying of the government of China.

The biggest mistake was to go in with censored result in the first place.

I agree, all governments spy on their citizens and censor he net. But the extent to which the Chinese government does it is exaggerated. I come from a country that was greatly and positively influenced by the events in Beijing in 1989. Trying to erase history is one of the biggest human sins.

[fearlessrick]

I have to side with China on this one. Google agreed to have its content censored, so as to establish a footprint in mainland China. They've used the hacking incident as an excuse, though never implicating the Chinese government explicitly.

Google broke its word with the Chinese, and that's surely not going to be taken lightly.

When even the hosts and guests on CNBC are completely bamboozled by Google's move, it suggests that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

Granted, Google search in China was contributing very little in revenue. However, China is a vast market and Google surely wants part of it.

I'll take a wild stab and suggest that the US security/intelligence/espionage apparatus is well into the bowels of Google's decision.

Did anyone not notice how quickly Eric Schmidt rocketed to the top of all the TV news shows over the past 18 months, how he appears on government-sponsored panels, etc.?

What's more corrupt? China openly censoring or the US secretly subverting? This is more about our escalating trade/currency issues with China than anything else, and the government's fingerprints seem to be all over it.

[loner]

Obviously Google is not a good fit for China. They should move on, quit sniveling and suck it in until they can act appropriately. Google sucks more than enough money from the rest of the world.

[mack]

Respect to G for this move. It's about time somebody stood-up to the commercial bullying of the government of China.

The biggest mistake was to go in with censored result in the first place.

I disagree with this statement because I don't see how they stood up to anyone. They went into Chine under the assumption that they would be able to run google.cn in exactly the same way they do with any other Google property. It was saw as an inconvenience that the Chinese government expected Google to comply with Chinese law. The choice was simple, censor your results in compliance with Chinese law or leave.

Mack.

[tntpower]

I come from a country that was greatly and positively influenced by the events in Beijing in 1989.

Must be Romania.

[Jo555]

>I don't know what Google expect. If you want to do business anywhere you need to respect the local laws.

>Mack.

Profit! Nothing else. Are we being brainwashed by the rhetoic of Google and the US government and forgetting what they really want. Nothing but profit, of business or political, probably both.

Keeping this in mind, it is not hard to understand why Google made such a tricky decision. Google still wants China's money, while the US wants some political profits.

[tangor]

What is sought EVERYWHERE, in business, life, or anything else, regardless of country, is CONTROL. Have that, you have everything else, including the money. In China, Google was unable to gain control, a position that company has not experienced before.

[mademetop]

Last week I was fortunate enough to visit the new Baidu "campus" in Beijing. An amazing sight to see with 4,000 people in place and space for a further 2,000 (and that is just their Beijing contingent). There seemed to be genuine disappointment that Google were pulling out. People there liked the challenge of an aggressive competitor (though, I suppose that is easy to say when you are winning the race).

Most I spoke to agreed with my thoughts that this was a bit of a smokescreen to mask the commercial failure of google.cn as far as the big G was concerned. However, who knows. But I do expect Bing to attempt to make some inroads into the Chinese market - so it won't just be a one horse race in the largest potential market in the World.