5 ms·

It's not about aligning with certain politics (!= policies). It's about something higher, about human rights.China should not be giving any lessons to anyone a

by barredo 17y ago

It's not about aligning with certain politics (!= policies). It's about something higher, about human rights.China should not be giving any lessons to anyone about this kind of stuff. I guess China fears that Google's movement will start a pattern of western tech/internet companies leaving China. Would Chinese companies be able to fill the void leave behind be those companies? I'm not sure. We are about to watch a game of victimhood (sorry, not sure if that's the word) played by the Chinese Govt. Let's see how that works.

stuntmouse 17y ago
Given the rate of progress of China's internet market and its size, I think we (and they) can bet that, yes, someone will fill any gaps.
- nkassis 17y ago
  I'm not to certain about that. Chinese internet users will need to be as valuable as other users around the world to warrant more investment in new companies. Unless some one has data that contradicts this, I believe that revenues per user is much much lower in China then elsewhere and it might take a while for it to catch up. The total revenues of the Chinese internet market doesn't seem to be worth it currently. It's certainly a future investment and it doesn't seem that foreign companies are winning the battle with local companies for the market. It seem that the Chinese Internet market is isolating itself.
chrischen 17y ago
Not just tech companies I'm sure. For example HSBC moved it's world headquarters to London before Hong Kong was handed over to the PRC. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsbc#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsbc#History If your company is in China, it's implicitly controlled by the gov't since it has authoritarian rule.
- jhancock 17y ago
  That's not a correct statement. Your Chinese company has the rights set forth by their laws. It is true their judicial process is prone to more corruption than in the U.S. But thats spotty and changing as well. You just can't always count on winning a court battle in China because your rich and connected anymore. I have witnessed very powerful Chinese officials and businessmen not take action against a rival because the action would have been unlawful and they didn't want to risk the penalties. I have seen mid-level government officials block attempted actions from senior officials because the actions didn't follow the rules.
  - chrischen 17y ago
    I'm assuming the CCP can win a court battle because it's rich and well connected in government (well, if dominance can be described as "well connected").
    - jhancock 17y ago
      The CCP _is_ the government. The distinction is that government is operated with officials that sit on the administration side and others that sit on the "party" side. They all have their functions. Here's an anecdote for you: a young chinese lady contracted HIV from a hospital blood transfusion. When it was found out, she was fired from her job and her family threw her out. She sued. Not just her employer and the government hospital but the government as well for not protecting her. She won. There are quite a few stories of the little person going up against government and winning. A few months ago, a waitress at a restaurant (hotel) was being accosted by two drunk men..assuming she was about to get raped, she stabbed them. I think one of them died. Turns out they were high level local officials. The girl was given leniency by the court as they understood it was self-defense.
andrewtj 17y ago
From my understanding of the use of TaoBao and Baidu in comparison to eBay and Google, void is a description of what western companies occupy in the Chinese marketplace — not what would be left by their leaving.
fnid2 17y ago
I really don't think China is afraid of Google leaving at all. Baidu is beating Google in China. China also has hackers that according to Google themselves are able to defeat Google's security measures, so I'd say China will do plenty fine without Google.

by barredo 17y ago

stuntmouse 17y ago

Given the rate of progress of China's internet market and its size, I think we (and they) can bet that, yes, someone will fill any gaps.

nkassis 17y ago
I'm not to certain about that. Chinese internet users will need to be as valuable as other users around the world to warrant more investment in new companies. Unless some one has data that contradicts this, I believe that revenues per user is much much lower in China then elsewhere and it might take a while for it to catch up. The total revenues of the Chinese internet market doesn't seem to be worth it currently. It's certainly a future investment and it doesn't seem that foreign companies are winning the battle with local companies for the market. It seem that the Chinese Internet market is isolating itself.

chrischen 17y ago

Not just tech companies I'm sure. For example HSBC moved it's world headquarters to London before Hong Kong was handed over to the PRC. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsbc#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsbc#History If your company is in China, it's implicitly controlled by the gov't since it has authoritarian rule.

jhancock 17y ago
That's not a correct statement. Your Chinese company has the rights set forth by their laws. It is true their judicial process is prone to more corruption than in the U.S. But thats spotty and changing as well. You just can't always count on winning a court battle in China because your rich and connected anymore. I have witnessed very powerful Chinese officials and businessmen not take action against a rival because the action would have been unlawful and they didn't want to risk the penalties. I have seen mid-level government officials block attempted actions from senior officials because the actions didn't follow the rules.
- chrischen 17y ago
  I'm assuming the CCP can win a court battle because it's rich and well connected in government (well, if dominance can be described as "well connected").
  - jhancock 17y ago
    The CCP _is_ the government. The distinction is that government is operated with officials that sit on the administration side and others that sit on the "party" side. They all have their functions. Here's an anecdote for you: a young chinese lady contracted HIV from a hospital blood transfusion. When it was found out, she was fired from her job and her family threw her out. She sued. Not just her employer and the government hospital but the government as well for not protecting her. She won. There are quite a few stories of the little person going up against government and winning. A few months ago, a waitress at a restaurant (hotel) was being accosted by two drunk men..assuming she was about to get raped, she stabbed them. I think one of them died. Turns out they were high level local officials. The girl was given leniency by the court as they understood it was self-defense.

andrewtj 17y ago

From my understanding of the use of TaoBao and Baidu in comparison to eBay and Google, void is a description of what western companies occupy in the Chinese marketplace — not what would be left by their leaving.

fnid2 17y ago

I really don't think China is afraid of Google leaving at all. Baidu is beating Google in China. China also has hackers that according to Google themselves are able to defeat Google's security measures, so I'd say China will do plenty fine without Google.