Chinese Web Insights: CCTV’s Attacks Increased Google’s Traffic

Hecaitou 和菜头, now based in Beijing, is one of the top active bloggers in China, updating  his blog every day and sometimes more than once a day.  He is a member of China’s Bai ethnic group and insists on being anonymous on the internet, the last Shangri-la for the free expression of ideas. Therefore, to respect his beliefs, we only present his cartoon logo although we do have his real picture.  After this original post was published, various Google properties have been inaccessible in China.

Disappointed to the Point of a Sick Stomach

In the last post , I predicted that Google’s traffic would increase dramatically after China Central Television’s (CCTV) reporting on the vast amounts of pornographic and vulgar content accessible through links on Google China. I made this prediction based on my understanding of communication and the psychology of netizens. I got this message today:

Hecaitou, you were right!

On June 18 at 6:00pm, the Google.cn’s comprehensive traffic ranked 22nd with 25,100 people per million visiting the site. And today (June 21 at 8:00pm), the Google China climbed to 20th place with 26,700 visitors per million.

On 18th June:

On 21st June:

If the manuscript for The Heart of a Teenage Girl（少女的心 by Simone de Beauvoir）had not been banned, it would not have gained such hype and people would not have clandestinely copied it by hand at the risk of being exiled to Xinjiang. In actuality, the plot of the book is pretty simple, the writing is not particularly great and it lacks originality. In an attempt to tarnish Google China’s reputation, CCTV just got more people to visit the site – free advertising.

For all the flack thrown at Google in China, it can never be blocked. It would be really bad press for China if it were to restrict access to the search engine, especially with Obama making a visit in the fall. For now, we can expect to see more small attempts to undermine Google from the likes of CCTV. Google will reciprocate accordingly, while knowing full well that their brand is secured.

Regretfully, despite the increase in visitors to Google after CCTV’s attacks through various channels, its ranking only went up three places. What this means is that CCTV’s influence is on the decline. I often hear that many TV programs on CCTV reach less than 5% of viewers but I could not believe it, thought there were so many people were fooled by TV media. However, I was wrong, people really have become wiser. According to the online statistics, a large percentage of the CCTV audience only watch TV series and the weather forecasts. (Even when the audience watch news on CCTV, very few of them believe its content) If CCTV had any kind of true influence, this kind of attack on Google should have yielded far more dramatic outcomes.

I had thought that after this event Google would have been able to capture more market share and to be a close competitor with Baidu. However, I would never have imagined CCTV’s influence has declined to such an extent.

Note: BloggerInsight is collecting more Chinese blogger’s comments on the Google China situation, more coming soon!

Huang Zhaolei, Mike Fung and Ying Xue contributed to this translation.