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Google is a unique company and its Founders are in a unique vantage point that I doubt that many of us struggling entrepreneurs would share. However, this artic

Google is a unique company and its Founders are in a unique vantage point that I doubt that many of us struggling entrepreneurs would share. However, this article is a thought-provoking good read for anyone who is a Founder/CEO of a startup, who are both the owner and the executive. In fact, in the beginning of the startup, being the Founder means that you own 100% of the company but at the same time, you are also its first employee. Interestingly, these two distinct roles provide two different and potentially conflicting sets of responsibilities. As an owner, your responsibility is to yourself and your family and you are free to make any political statement that you wish to make. On the other hand, being an executive means that you have accepted a fiduciary duty and the mandate to protect the interest of your shareholders. In any case, I beleive Google leaving China would be a devastating blow to the Chinese citizens AND to the Google shareholders.

sethg 17y ago
I think one could make two strong arguments that Google leaving China makes good business sense, and is not just a warm-fuzzies thing. First of all, whoever broke into Google’s servers and collected confidential data from them made Google look like a chump. Given that Google’s long-term business plans seem to involve convincing lots of people to entrust even more sensitive data to Google’s servers, Google has a strong interest in not looking like a chump. Second, if the PRC government has veto power over what search results Google can show, and Google’s ability to compete depends on the quality of its search results, and the government favors Chinese-based companies that it can control more closely... perhaps the deck is just so stacked against Google that it would get more ROI doing business in a less authoritarian country.
- dennykmiu 17y ago
  Google is still the most open search engine in China. In some way, Google is the Voice of America. Should we have shut down VOA just because the other side decides to jam our signal? By the way, I should have edited the end of my comment to say that it is devastating to the Chinese citizens in the short run and devastating to the Google shareholders in the long run since currently Google is getting less than 1% of its revenue from China, so shutting it down really doesn't hurt Google's bottomline. In any case, I grew up in communist China and had lived on the other side until I was a teenager and I really appreciate the benefits that even an suboptimal communication channel would bring to the Chinese people. The alternative is simply unacceptable.

sethg 17y ago

I think one could make two strong arguments that Google leaving China makes good business sense, and is not just a warm-fuzzies thing. First of all, whoever broke into Google’s servers and collected confidential data from them made Google look like a chump. Given that Google’s long-term business plans seem to involve convincing lots of people to entrust even more sensitive data to Google’s servers, Google has a strong interest in not looking like a chump. Second, if the PRC government has veto power over what search results Google can show, and Google’s ability to compete depends on the quality of its search results, and the government favors Chinese-based companies that it can control more closely... perhaps the deck is just so stacked against Google that it would get more ROI doing business in a less authoritarian country.

dennykmiu 17y ago
Google is still the most open search engine in China. In some way, Google is the Voice of America. Should we have shut down VOA just because the other side decides to jam our signal? By the way, I should have edited the end of my comment to say that it is devastating to the Chinese citizens in the short run and devastating to the Google shareholders in the long run since currently Google is getting less than 1% of its revenue from China, so shutting it down really doesn't hurt Google's bottomline. In any case, I grew up in communist China and had lived on the other side until I was a teenager and I really appreciate the benefits that even an suboptimal communication channel would bring to the Chinese people. The alternative is simply unacceptable.