Just in case you haven’t been keeping up, here’s the skinny:
Google retreats from China because:
- Google refuses to cooperate with government censors after hackers stole some of the company’s source code
- They also broke into Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates
- Final verdict: Google will redirect Chinese users to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong
However, Google will keep a few things in China:
- Research & development team
- Local sales force
- Online maps
- Music services
China already blocks major social media networks:
- YouTube
Consequences?
- Google’s losing out on nearly 400 million online users – essentially the world’s largest Internet market.
- But according to NYTimes.com, there will be limited financial impact on Google
- Google trailed its Chinese equivalent, Baidu.com with 33 percent market share compared to Baidu’s 63 percent. Check out The Rise of Baidu (That’s Chinese for Google)
- China accounted for only a small fraction of Google’s global revenue last year
- Ads once on google.cn will now appear on Google’s Hong Kong search engine
Image & News Source: NYTimes.com