4 ms·

Except somehow it endsup doing just that (strangling competition from outside of China)

by throwaway1974 10y ago

bduerst 10y ago
China is strangling competition from outside of China, not the firewall. The firewall isn't what was preventing Uber from competing in China, for example.
- usaar333 10y ago
  Isn't the general consensus is that Uber lost generally fairly? On the other hand, the firewall outright blocks websites like Facebook and Google from competing in China.
  - bduerst 10y ago
    Right, that's the point. Facebook and Google refused to cooperate with the Chinese government on censorship, and now the firewall blocks them.
  - jasonjei 10y ago
    That's hardly true that Uber was treated fairly. Uber drivers faced hurdles from local government (being unable to issue a tax receipt), while Didi could do so. Uber drivers and headquarters faced frequent harassment from Hong Kong authorities, while Didi was relatively immune.
- exhilaration 10y ago
  The firewall isn't what was preventing Uber from competing in China... But it is one of the things that prevented Google from competing in China. Here's an excerpt from an article previously posted on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218607 The hurdles could be unpredictable, with an element of deniability. Sometimes Google found itself at the mercy of China’s ability to manipulate the digital infrastructure. The site would work slowly, or there would be outages. In one instance, Google found not only that users were blocked from its site, but also that when they typed in the address, they would be redirected to it competitor Baidu. This played into the narrative spun by Baidu that Google was overmatched in serving China, and that the local option was more reliable.
  - bduerst 10y ago
    You cherry picked that completely out of context. If you look at the paragraph right before you see that it corroborates that it's China, not the firewall, to blame for the anti-competitive behavior: >Yes, Google made its own mistakes, including some cultural miscues. But the actions of the Chinese government against Google seemed less to do with regulations and more like harassment. The sanctions appeared directly tied to how well Google was doing in the marketplace. Google executives believed that Chinese officials had drawn a line in the sand — that when Google market share approached thirty percent, suddenly bad things would happen. Is that why you didn't link the article? https://backchannel.com/when-it-comes-to-china-googles-experience-still-says-it-all-bdc4eeedd32c#.wgnn5u5kk https://backchannel.com/when-it-comes-to-china-googles-exper...
    - exhilaration 10y ago
      I did link to the Hacker News thread and I'm confused - you seem to be splitting hairs, what's the difference between China and China's firewall when it comes to tech companies? The latter is the stick used by the former.

Except somehow it endsup doing just that (strangling competition from outside of China)

China is strangling competition from outside of China, not the firewall. The firewall isn't what was preventing Uber from competing in China, for example.

usaar333 10y ago
Isn't the general consensus is that Uber lost generally fairly? On the other hand, the firewall outright blocks websites like Facebook and Google from competing in China.
- bduerst 10y ago
  Right, that's the point. Facebook and Google refused to cooperate with the Chinese government on censorship, and now the firewall blocks them.
- jasonjei 10y ago
  That's hardly true that Uber was treated fairly. Uber drivers faced hurdles from local government (being unable to issue a tax receipt), while Didi could do so. Uber drivers and headquarters faced frequent harassment from Hong Kong authorities, while Didi was relatively immune.
exhilaration 10y ago
The firewall isn't what was preventing Uber from competing in China... But it is one of the things that prevented Google from competing in China. Here's an excerpt from an article previously posted on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218607 The hurdles could be unpredictable, with an element of deniability. Sometimes Google found itself at the mercy of China’s ability to manipulate the digital infrastructure. The site would work slowly, or there would be outages. In one instance, Google found not only that users were blocked from its site, but also that when they typed in the address, they would be redirected to it competitor Baidu. This played into the narrative spun by Baidu that Google was overmatched in serving China, and that the local option was more reliable.
- bduerst 10y ago
  You cherry picked that completely out of context. If you look at the paragraph right before you see that it corroborates that it's China, not the firewall, to blame for the anti-competitive behavior: >Yes, Google made its own mistakes, including some cultural miscues. But the actions of the Chinese government against Google seemed less to do with regulations and more like harassment. The sanctions appeared directly tied to how well Google was doing in the marketplace. Google executives believed that Chinese officials had drawn a line in the sand — that when Google market share approached thirty percent, suddenly bad things would happen. Is that why you didn't link the article? https://backchannel.com/when-it-comes-to-china-googles-experience-still-says-it-all-bdc4eeedd32c#.wgnn5u5kk https://backchannel.com/when-it-comes-to-china-googles-exper...
  - exhilaration 10y ago
    I did link to the Hacker News thread and I'm confused - you seem to be splitting hairs, what's the difference between China and China's firewall when it comes to tech companies? The latter is the stick used by the former.