21 ms·

They expected to do business, of course. It is, after all, a 1.32bn audience base. Quite glad they're opting to take the ethical route this time, though.

code_devil 17y ago
Well,the decision could also have been made along with the fact that they don't have a large user base. I am guessing "Baidu" is still pretty popular there. I wonder if they would have done the same if they had a 60% penetration in the Chinese market. EDIT: Why am I being downmodded ? I thought we are supposed to have open discussions here. (I did find the actual google mkt share in the TC blog later, but I was presenting an alternative reason along with the fact that their site was attacked)
- pavs 17y ago
  Even if they have 5% market pulling out of china is huge. They currently have ~17% market share in China. No profit-making company in their right mind would pull out of country with ~17% market share.
  - lallysingh 17y ago
    s/profit-making/profit-centered/
    - shard 17y ago
      It's a public company's fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of it's stockholders, which in most cases is profit-centered (considering that the major holders of Google are investment funds and groups). It looks like after hours trading of GOOG is trending lower.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - Frazzydee 17y ago
    Reference for 17% market share: http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/28/google-v-baidu-which-company-will-win-china/ http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/28/googl...
Radix 17y ago
On top of a profitable business in China, Google now has some ability to leverage some change in China. At the least, other corporations and governments will reconsider their relationships or expectations of China. Google had no influence before they opened google.cn, and as netcan pointed out, it wouldn't have been very useful to show sites not viewable through the Great Firewall anyway. Business and an opportunity they didn't have before. Be charitable, this looks like a better outcome than had they stayed out of China altogether.
- realitygrill 17y ago
  “The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make the rest of us wonder at the possibility that we might be missing something.” Well, I wouldn't call Google's moves stupid, but this sure is a surprising outcome.
  - Radix 17y ago
    That is a perfect quote. Please tell me who it is attributed to. I tried to give you a point, but failed.
    - realitygrill 17y ago
      Gamal Abdel Nassar, second President of Egypt. Thanks for trying with the point; I'm new and I guess still provisional.
est 17y ago
> a 1.32bn audience base With 0.4bn actual base (total amount of Chinese Internet users), others were 'represented' by the Party.
- SapphireSun 17y ago
  0.4 bn = Population of the united states
tel 17y ago
Additionally, they recruit heavily from China's top universities.

code_devil 17y ago

Well,the decision could also have been made along with the fact that they don't have a large user base. I am guessing "Baidu" is still pretty popular there. I wonder if they would have done the same if they had a 60% penetration in the Chinese market. EDIT: Why am I being downmodded ? I thought we are supposed to have open discussions here. (I did find the actual google mkt share in the TC blog later, but I was presenting an alternative reason along with the fact that their site was attacked)

pavs 17y ago
Even if they have 5% market pulling out of china is huge. They currently have ~17% market share in China. No profit-making company in their right mind would pull out of country with ~17% market share.
- lallysingh 17y ago
  s/profit-making/profit-centered/
  - shard 17y ago
    It's a public company's fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of it's stockholders, which in most cases is profit-centered (considering that the major holders of Google are investment funds and groups). It looks like after hours trading of GOOG is trending lower.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- Frazzydee 17y ago
  Reference for 17% market share: http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/28/google-v-baidu-which-company-will-win-china/ http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/28/googl...

Radix 17y ago

On top of a profitable business in China, Google now has some ability to leverage some change in China. At the least, other corporations and governments will reconsider their relationships or expectations of China. Google had no influence before they opened google.cn, and as netcan pointed out, it wouldn't have been very useful to show sites not viewable through the Great Firewall anyway. Business and an opportunity they didn't have before. Be charitable, this looks like a better outcome than had they stayed out of China altogether.

realitygrill 17y ago
“The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make the rest of us wonder at the possibility that we might be missing something.” Well, I wouldn't call Google's moves stupid, but this sure is a surprising outcome.
- Radix 17y ago
  That is a perfect quote. Please tell me who it is attributed to. I tried to give you a point, but failed.
  - realitygrill 17y ago
    Gamal Abdel Nassar, second President of Egypt. Thanks for trying with the point; I'm new and I guess still provisional.

est 17y ago

> a 1.32bn audience base With 0.4bn actual base (total amount of Chinese Internet users), others were 'represented' by the Party.

SapphireSun 17y ago
0.4 bn = Population of the united states

tel 17y ago

Additionally, they recruit heavily from China's top universities.