Google Reported Ready To Leave China April 10 176
A number of readers including tsj5j and bruleriestdenis wrote to alert us to this CNET story: "Google is expected to announce on Monday that it will withdraw from China on April 10, according to a report in a Beijing-based newspaper that cited an unidentified sales associate who works with the company. 'I have received information saying that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google,' the China Business News quoted the agent as saying. The report also said Google would reveal its plans for its China-based staff that day."
hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
..it will be interesting to see what kind of repercussions google's employees living in China might have to face. This may sound weird, but I'm a bit worried for their workers over there...
The source is a salesperson (Score:5, Interesting)
Why on earth would a salesperson at google be in the know on this one?
My guess is a memo or something went out saying they would have a meeting on April 10th to discuss things, and the rumor mill starting going full speed inside the department about what it was about.
I just find it hard to believe that Google's sales department would be let in on too much information.
What does it mean to "leave"? (Score:5, Interesting)
So they close up shop there. They are an INTERNET COMPANY!
As long as they aren't blocked, they can still serve those users in China. And if they aren't blocked, they can still charge for advertising to non-Chinese customers.
I asked this before, and everyone said something to the effect of "THERE ARE BILLIONS OF CHINESE" as a reason why Google should stay. But I'm still not seeing it. Google can operate from anywhere. A local presence provides them very little unless they intend to expand some China-specific business/technology, which they haven't done at all (for any country they are currently in for that matter).
Re:What does it mean to "leave"? (Score:5, Interesting)
They still will keep their advertising department open, and whatever other programming they do (it's such a pain to start an office in China that it's not a bad idea to keep a small office there, in case you ever do decide to start doing something there, it won't take six months of bribing people to get all the permits etc).
Re:hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
This makes me happy. Not that it's Google, specifically, but I'm happy to see any company pull out of China. Wake up, world. Globalization is not the way forward.
Wait until Google is actually gone. See what happens to anything and everything that is either left behind, or has already been pilfered, copied, cracked, or whatever. China respects no "intellectual" property, whatsoever. All the property of Google in China is actually the property of China - intellectual, or otherwise.
Expect Choogle to come online by the end of April, in direct competition with Google.
Perspective of a Chinese-Canadian (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, I applaud Google for sticking to their guns, and keeping consistent with their Do No Evil policy. On the other hand, I also understand the patriarchal nature of Chinese society, and the need for a strong central authority to maintain order - its order - at any cost. The patriarchal perspective has its roots in the dynastic nature of China for almost the entirety of its 2000+ year existence, and that doesn't change in a mere century, especially not when the society is steeped in tradition.
I'm guessing the Chinese government views Google in the same way a very conservative father might see a rebellious teenager, while Google sees the Chinese government as wanting to have things both ways with regards to playing by their rules and protection under their laws. The viewpoints of father-knows-best versus fairness are incompatible, and it was only a matter of time before the two split on ideological differences. Add to the fact that Google isn't making too much in China right now as a distant second in terms of marketshare compared to Baidu, and you can see how they might decide that they have more to gain from publicly splitting with China in order to improve their public perception with the western market (and possibly win points with the US government).
(The CAPTCHA for this post is 'bypasses' - fitting, isn't it?)
Re:hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Are you also against inter-state trade? Why not? If trade between 2 ppl in different countries is bad (that is what globalization is), why is trade between 2 ppl in 2 different state here is ok?
Wealth is created by division of labour aka trade - it doesn't matter if the 2 people trading are standing on either side of an imaginary line or not.
Re:hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)