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I spend about 6 months of the year in China. Yes, I am forced, as you say, to use the Chinese versions of everything, but, to be honest, it doesn't worry me. I
by pdm55 12y ago
I spend about 6 months of the year in China. Yes, I am forced, as you say, to use the Chinese versions of everything, but, to be honest, it doesn't worry me. I use Baidu to put my teaching notes online for my students - it is as good as DropBox. Bing is allowed and works fine as a search engine, even if it blocks any results for "naughty" words. It becomes a bit of a game to see which double entendres it doesn't recognise. Conversing on English corner one night, a student asked me what I thought about their government blocking Google. I think my answer surprised him: I said, "Do you want Google to rule the world?" My implication is that I think services like Baidu are good competition for Google. I honestly think that the governments blocking of Western services is a business decision. It's highly likely sites like Bauidu pay the government a cut to continue the blockade. Imagine a world where you don't get continually served with Google ads. That's pretty close to Nirvana in my opinion.
- semi-extrinsic 12y agoAre you really serious? Adblocking is trivial and does not require government censorship. And how does allowing access to Google let them rule the world?
- pdm55 12y agoI think you miss my point. As I see it, the Chinese government are basically blocking Google as a business decision. Take a look at Baidu. You will be amazed at the number of services they offer. On the roads in China you see a lot of Audis and Mercedes. These are mostly driven by Government officials. There are many avenues for Government officials to earn money. I don't know the size of companies like Baidu and Ali Baba, but I would warrant they are many times the size of Google and Amazon. Government officials want a piece of that action. If you really think this all about freedom of speech, you seem somewhat naïve to me. It's money, money, money.
- low_battery 12y agoYour 2 statements has nothing to do with each other. Here take another 50 cent.
- pdm55 12y agoI am sorry. I have to let you connect the dots. I have a university job in China and I don't want to be kicked out of the country. Just follow the money.
- semi-extrinsic 12y agoThe valuation of Baidu is currently around $50 billion. Compare this to Amazon which is valued at $125 billion, and Google at $375 billion. Apple is at $600 billion. So you're basically wrong.
- gress 12y ago50c well earned.