Google has a “new approach to China” as David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer put it on January 12 on Google’s official blog. The post quite directly points a finger at China as the source of a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China”. The primary goal of this attack is believed to have been to attain access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Why did Google share this information? To cite the post: “this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech…”
‘Don’t be Evil’ Now?
Four years ago when Google entered the Chinese market, a post on the company’s official blog implored to us to understand that Google’s “continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.”
Then it was all about working alongside the mighty Chinese dragon for the greater good of Google’s mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally useful and accessible.” Perhaps it is worth noting that when Google entered the Chinese market in January 2006, world economic growth forecasts were looking rosy on the back of world growth rate of 4 percent in 2005.
In 2010, after trudging through a miserable 2009, growth is expected to be sluggish at best while the world economy continues to dig itself out of what the IMF has called “the most severe recession since World War II.” Perhaps Google has found a convenient excuse to exit a market in which the costs have been rather significant and the return lower than expected.
Perhaps upon entering the heavily censored Chinese Internet market in 2006, Google had not quite anticipated the resolute strength of a Communist run power. History has taught us that Western charm alone cannot bring down the Iron Curtain.
Then there are market realities such as Baidu, the Beijing based, locally run search engine in China that dominates the Internet market. As at Q2 2009, Baidu held 61.6% of the market, followed by Google China with a share of 29.1%. The other engines were but a blip on the radar with Yahoo China holding 5.6%.
Certainly, one cannot discount the challenges of operating in such a controlled and censored environment particularly in the online market, which thrives upon speed, openness and freedom of expression. China doesn’t make it easy for foreign companies to operate on its turf, but it was never was going to make it easy. China did not create any misconceptions, perhaps it was gallant Google that spoke too soon when they said: “We’re in this for the long haul.”
