Uln of CHINAYOUREN has yet another well-written post surrounding the recent Google debacle. Richard of The Peking Duck praised it especially for doing a good job explaining why Chinese internet users in general don’t feel compelled to hop over the Great Firewall that controls what they can or cannot see on the internet. Richard also claims Uln “shatters – to his own satisfaction, at least – the widely held belief (shall we call it a “meme”?) of many English-language China bloggers that a censored google.cn was far better than no google.cn.” From Uln’s post:
The most amusing thing in the Google crisis is all the commentators crying about the loss of Google.cn and its negative consequences for the freedom of the Chinese.
No.
Wrong.
At least for this English-language China blogger.
I don’t believe that a censored Google.cn is far better than no Google.cn, much less cry about it.
I believe that Google in China is better than no Google in China. I cry about the loss of Google in China and its negative consequences for the freedom of the Chinese. It isn’t about the loss of Google.cn itself. There are several reasons, which I’ll get to in a second.
Evil is Search Engine Manipulation with Google’s name on it
But first, Uln’s argument is that the loss of Google.cn is a good thing for Chinese users because Google.cn engages in search engine manipulation (SEM). In other words, while the “engine” underneath Google.cn is the same as Google.com, the results shown are different, manipulated under agreement with the Chinese government censors to hide results the Chinese government finds objectionable and doesn’t want its populace to see. An internet user in China using Google.com would be able to see all the results but might get blocked when he or she tries to click on a result that leads to a blocked website. The user would be reminded of the government’s censorship. However, an internet user in China using Google.cn would see only manipulated results, effectively hiding both the information and the censorship. That Google.cn explicitly notifies users when results are manipulated is dismissed by Uln as being largely inconsequential because users begin to ignore it or it is often placed below the list of results.
These are all valid criticisms of Google.cn and, by extension, Google itself. Uln argues that this compromises the integrity of the Google brand name and value proposition (do no evil, we provide information, etc.) thereby betraying the trust of its Chinese users who see the Google name slapped on Google.cn as meaning something about the information Google.cn will provide. Uln writes:
When you type a “sensitive” term and G.cn removes all the results except the People’s Daily and Xinhua, Google’s responsibility is double: not only it supports those often objectible views on the first page, but it also implicitly states that it is the ONLY opinion existing in the World.
And the worse is, the Chinese who believed that would be right to do so, because Google’s well known principles clearly specify their commitment to give all the information available in a democratic way.
G.cn is a shame for Google and it is probably the single most evil page on the Chinese internet (because it manipulates just like Baidu, but lends the brand name of Google to the manipulation).
But is a loss of Google.cn a good thing?
No.
Google.cn is Choice
Google.cn represents choice. It gives Chinese internet users another option for searching the web other than Baidu. Yes, there is Yahoo and there is Bing but neither of them are remotely as big as Google.cn, even if Google.cn is second place to Baidu. It gives Chinese internet users access to Google’s internet indexing and search methodology and algorithms. Even as Google.cn suffers the same manipulation of potentially displayed search results as Baidu, it provides different ordering and ranking of displayed search results.
This different ordering and ranking is precisely one of the main reasons why Google beat Yahoo and other search engines (MSN Search, Ask.com, etc.) elsewhere in the world. Google’s search engine returned better sorted and more relevant search results to users. Why continue finding your answers in the 3rd or 5th Yahoo search result when Google gave it to you in its first result? People started using Google because it delivered what they were looking for more efficiently.
That’s what a good search engine is about, providing the best search results for any given user inputted query, and Google is a good search engine.
Yes, having incomplete search results due to government-mandated self-censorship is bad, but Chinese users are not searching for potentially censored or blocked material all day long on Google.cn. They, you know, use it to do other fairly mundane things that don’t get the Chinese government censors’ panties in a twist. They look up news on celebrities, research product information, find the latest scores to last night’s NBA game, etc. etc. etc. Google.cn provides a valuable service to its users in China because it still helps them find the information they are looking for using qualitatively different and valuable methodology and algorithms than Baidu.
Google.cn gives Chinese internet users a choice.
Choice is freedom.
Losing Google.cn is a loss of choice.
Less choice is less freedom.
Therefore, loss of Google.cn is arguably a negative consequence for the freedom of the Chinese. It may even be something worth crying about.
The reason why “a censored google.cn is better than no google.cn” is exactly this. Google.cn still provides different results of value in the vast majority of Chinese web searches. This was very much part of the whole utilitarian argument that Google gave for agreeing to market and censor Google.cn in the first place. Even with the same scrubbed search results as Baidu, Google still has some competitive advantage worth offering to Chinese netizens through Google.cn.
No, the competitive advantage isn't only Chinese-specific Google logos.
Without Google.cn, its users will switch to Google.com, which is better anyway
Uln argues that…
Google.com is a Search Engine that is:
1- Exactly as good quality as Google.cn (identical index)
2- Without the manipulation of Google.cn
3- AND much less censored than Google.cn
…which is definitely true.
So, like Uln, some people may be asking why Chinese users use the self-censored Google.cn instead of the freely accessible Google.com? Uln answers:
And the only reason why Chinese don’t use it is that Google.cn sounds more Chinese to them, and they just don’t care enough.
No, it isn’t because Google.cn sounds more Chinese to them, it is because Google.cn is more Chinese to them.
I don’t think there’s enough emphasis given to display language being a major reason why people prefer Google.cn over Google.com. The vast majority of Chinese internet users instantly feel intimidated and overwhelmed by any website that is not written in Chinese. This is a big reason why Chinese people say “Google.cn is for the Chinese”. We can’t underestimate the importance of first impressions.
“But you can change the interface language of Google.com to Simplified Chinese…”
Never underestimate the importance of first impressions.
Hell, people even cite “google” being hard to spell for Chinese people as being a reason why Google is behind Baidu. Ever wonder why Google owns g.cn?
I feel there’s a tenuous compromise between the CCP censors and Google right now that allows Google.com to remain freely accessible despite it not providing the same manipulated search results as Google.cn. This is as long as the majority of Chinese internet users willingly head for Google.cn, as long as they see Google.cn as being tailored specifically for them, the Chinese. It’s like the GFW still allowing proxies to work so long as it achieves its mission with blocking the vast majority. The CCP information control scheme is not about preventing everyone from knowing certain things, it’s about preventing too many people from knowing certain things.
If Google.cn is no more and this leads former Google.cn users to simply migrate to Baidu, then maybe — just maybe — Google.com will remain freely accessible in China. However, if it results in too many former Google.cn users subsequently adopting and using Google.com, the CCP will indeed worry.
So a question then is how much will Google push the envelope with an unblocked Google.com. After all, Google will still have a business necessity and plan for capturing Chinese internet users, right? Even if Google does nothing to appeal to mainland Chinese users, leaving it the way it is, it could still get blocked if too many mainland users flock to it. If Google, however, intentionally seeks to make Google.com user-friendly enough to bring in substantial Chinese people to search and get its non-manipulated results, then it will be seen as a threat to the Chinese government’s efforts to control information and thus it will definitely face the possibility of being blocked outright.
And when that happens, Uln’s conclusion here…
Most probably the disappearance of G.cn will push the present G.cn users to switch to G.com, and the outcome will be increased freedom in the Chinese internet.
…will definitely look short-sighted and naive.
His argument isn’t hard to understand, though. Uln argues that this forced migration from a shut-down Google.cn to Google.com is a good thing because Google.com at least offers non-manipulated search results. Even if the Chinese users still can’t click through to the blocked websites due to the GFW, at least they can see and read the search result excerpts and, more importantly, know that such information exists out there. They would at least be aware of the existence of those dissenters and dissenting opinions that the Chinese government ideally doesn’t even want them to be aware of. That’s more freedom, right? That’s good, right?
That’s more freedom, right? That’s good, right?
Yeah, that’s good. It’s better than nothing.
Yeah, except until the Chinese government realizes that, blocks Google.com, and it indeed becomes nothing.
Nothing for the Chinese internet user. No Google.cn, no Google.com, no Google search methodology and algorithms. Only Baidu.
No choice.
No freedom.
Of course, Uln acknowledges such near the end of his post:
On the other hand, some commenters are already saying that I am too optimistic, and that the CCP will quickly come to the same conclusion I have come and block Google.com.
Without Google.com, the Chinese will learn of the Great Firewall and how to get around it, which is better anyway
But Uln continues:
The good news is that EVEN if they do block Google.com, the situation will still be better than today. The Chinese Google users will start to miss the G, and they will start to use web proxies to access Google.com, expanding their use and making the Chinese net population more conscious of the GFW and of the ways to cross it.
I’m not so sold on that situation still being better than the situation today. It is extremely optimistic, almost unreasonably so, to think a blocking of Google.com will by itself, or through the former Google users, make the general Chinese internet populace more conscious of the GFW and of the tools that could be used to cross it. Remember, most of the Chinese internet doesn’t use Google. It wouldn’t be a loss for most Chinese netizens because it wouldn’t directly affect their internet lives. If they aren’t inconvenienced in a practical manner, how can we expect a meaningful expansion of GFW-consciousness or use of GFW-circumventing tools?
Are we really hoping former Google.cn and then Google.com Chinese users are going to be freedom fighters? That they’ll become internet freedom and anti-censorship activists, handing out information on proxies and VPNs to the masses, enlightening them all?
For web searches, Baidu is the easy alternative. The one stickiness point will be Google productivity tools like Google Apps and, most notably, GMail. It will probably be easier to use a proxy or VPN than to accept losing one’s e-mail account, and this is definitely more so for companies and organizations. Yes, we’ll get a lot of these people but they’re likely and already plenty aware of the GFW, of proxies and VPNs. The real coup is not in these people expanding their use of proxies and VPNs or hoping they’ll help the general Chinese net population become “more conscious of the GFW and of the ways to cross it”, it is in them being inconvenienced so much that they demand the government unblock Google.com.
Yet, even then, it may only go as far as so they can use their productivity tools, not necessarily Google’s web search.
So where’s the “increased freedom in the Chinese internet” in that?
How is that situation really better than now?
Because a few more people will learn about the GFW and fewer still will bother to find out how to use proxies and VPNs? All this at the expense of broader daily practical choice and productivity for all the existing Chinese Google users and future would-be Google converts?
Some people surely see this trade-off as being worth-it, as being acceptable, as being desirable.
Me? I’m not so sure.
Why Google.cn is Evil and should leave China
That’s the title of Uln’s post.
It’s also a straw man.
This was never about whether or not Google.cn would or should leave China. It was about whether or not Google would or should leave China. I hope everyone caught onto the difference from the beginning. Everything is hinging on whether or not Google.cn is what allows Google, and also Google.com, to remain in China. We cannot approach answering this question without considering Google being blocked from China entirely if it doesn’t play ball with the Chinese government on Google.cn. If Google refuses to play ball on Google.cn, by uncensoring it or just shutting it down, we have to consider what may happen to Google.com. We should even expect the worst. In fact, that’s what we do best when it comes to Chinese government censorship, right? Why are we even entertaining that Google.com will remain unscathed and freely accessible in mainland China at all?
I’m not going to say there are only two possibilities. Life can surprise us at times. But requiring Google to censor its Google.cn search results was always, at heart, about the Chinese government’s insecurities with letting its citizens know too much information it fears will bring chaos to their order. It was not about dicking with Google just because it could. How reasonable is it to even suggest that access to an unrestricted Google.com can persist in mainland China, behind the Great Firewall, without a restricted Google.cn running cover?
Uln declares:
In fact, I maintain that Google.cn is the most evil product to ever have existed in the Chinese internet, and the World will be a better place without it.
No, I strongly disagree. I think it offered Chinese internet users valuable choice in most practical matters. Yes, I wish it could do so without manipulated search results but life is not black and white and sometimes we have to make the best of what we can control. You have to be in a game to win it.
No, I don’t think “the World” will be a better place without Google.cn. I think certain people in “the World” will rejoice for about a week and then continue on living their merry lives, using Google as they always have, and not really care one way or another that nearly 400 million internet users in China no longer have a user-friendly version of Google at their disposal. So no, “the World” will not be a better place, just temporarily more smug.
China, on the other hand, will definitely be a worse place without it and Chinese internet users will definitely be worse off for it.
Recommended Reading:
- “Google China cyber espionage saga” from ZDNet’s Zero Day (h/t ESWN)
-
Google leaving China will not be as big a revolution in the business world as you think. Getting excited over China’s loss of face may be playing into its hand.
-
A 12 point summary of the entire Green Dam Youth Escort web-filtering and censorship software controversy and the CCTV attacking Google for porn links scandal.
-
BloggerInsight asks notable Chinese bloggers how CCTV’s recent attacks against Google will affect Google’s business in China. Their answers might not be pretty.
Google Leaving China Will Not Be A Revolution, Televised Or Not 
Green Dam & CCTV’s Attacks On Google – 12 Point Review 
Google Needs to Behave To Succeed, Say Chinese Bloggers 
“China, on the other hand, will definitely be a worse place without it and Chinese internet users will definitely be worse off for it.”
I agree. Bad for a lot of Chinese users – in the short term.
But Google aren’t wrong to take issue with the censorship and the infiltration of their ranks with CCP spies. To believe so is to subscribe to the false view that the Chinese government will slowly begin to embrace internet and media freedoms as the economy becomes stronger and the nation more confident of its place in the world.
They haven’t, and show no signs of doing any such thing. In fact, they’ve rather gone into reverse in the last year or so.
Now that this is an issue, the worst thing that Google could do for Chinese internet users would be to capitulate.
stuart,
When you say short term, that means you have a vision for what will happen in the long term to make it better (or at least neutral) for Chinese users. I’m totally open to imagining what that may be.
I definitely agree that it isn’t wrong for Google to take issue with censorship and any infiltration of spies. But I wasn’t suggesting that much less believing that.
I still don’t think we have a clear reason for why Google is choosing to uncensor Google.cn and risk likely getting shut out of China. Is it because they changed their mind on censorship? Is it because the government wants them to do more censorship than they previously agreed to and won’t put up with it anymore? Is it because the government did something to piss them off, like CCP spies infiltrating their ranks? What is it exactly?
We already know the hacking won’t be solved by leaving China as they’d still be vulnerable to hacking abroad. If it is infiltration within the offices physically inside China, then yes, closing their China offices will mitigate this to an extent. But is Google’s planned move a manifestation of accumulated frustration with existing agreed-upon censorship or retribution against an offense made against it (breaking censorship agreements, infiltration and IP-theft)?
The Chinese users who are going to be screwed over would at least like to know what the real and exact reason is.
Beyond that, and going back to a larger overarching point of my post, is: Let’s not argue or suggest that Google leaving China is going to be good overall for Chinese people, that it’ll result in more freedom in the Chinese internet. I’m having a really hard time believing that.
Anyway, thanks for the comment, stuart. Cheers.
“What is it exactly?”
I think it’s a combination of the possible reasons you give, and very much a case of recent events being ‘the final straw’. Plus, Google’s stance now has the explicit backing of the US government, which they probably knew was in the pipeline when they made their announcement.
The new idea in Washington seems to be: internet freedom isn’t going the way we would like in China (and elsewhere), so let’s shift tack and promote ways around the GFW rather than chip away block by block.
I suppose the danger with this approach is that the CCP respond by constructing a China-encircling ’superwall’ that those within cannot go either over or around.
stuart,
I’d want Google to state very clearly what the exact reasons are. If it is for the reasons we say, I think exposing them would at least do a wee bit of good towards contributing to the awareness of Chinese internet users (as Uln puts it), especially if it becomes apparent that they’re going to be run out. Of course, in that scenario, that would mean Google is basically keeping that information mum as a bargaining chip against the Chinese government, ostensibly to get advantageous concessions from the government. That’d be an interesting business-play and, from a moral/ethical perspective, it’d be valuing the good they can possibly provide to Chinese internet users with those concessions over the Chinese internet users knowing exactly what the government asked of or did to them.
I think promoting ways around the GFW is going to be tricky. With the GFW being able to block websites and even shut down peer-to-peer sharing, it’ll be a cat and mouse game, which by itself would hinder mass marketing or promotions of getting around the GFW, right? I don’t think the US government is going to be dropping leaflets across China anytime soon.
I agree that the danger of that approach could actually speed up the development of the great China LAN.
>:(
Kai, I am afraid you have not read my complete post, and if you have then you have not understood anything. Listen: Google.cn and Google.com are the same index, there is no instructions to understand, you just go and type the search, that’s what 99% of the people, finito!!
Uln,
Regarding Google, I’m pretty sure I’ve read your complete post and I don’t agree that I’ve not understood anything. I understand they may use the same index, that entering the same inputs on either Google.cn or Google.com will return the same results except that one is manipulated/censored and the other not. I even agree that Google is pretty simple enough graphically to know where to make inputs.
However, I still maintain that first impressions are not to be underestimated and I still maintain that interface language matters, nevermind the fact that Google.cn and Google.com are host to other, some country-specific, services such as music search.
There’s a reason why Chinese internet users feel Google.cn is for them and it isn’t simply that there’s a .cn at the end and “they just don’t care”. I’m afraid the only way you might accept this is if you ran a real experiment only offering Chinese netizens Baidu.com versus Google.com as it is now. I strongly suspect Google.com in this experiment will not have the usage rates Google.cn has.
Furthermore, I’d like to hear your responses to my disagreements and objections with your claim that even if Google.com is blocked, the situation will still be better for Chinese netizens than today. As it is, you know I don’t think the Chinese government is going to so easily let Google.cn close down but allow Google.com to remain freely accessible so long as they feel too many people will migrate to it.
Finally, despite my clear disagreement with your position here, you do already know that I hold you and your blog in very high regard.
“No, it isn’t because Google.cn sounds more Chinese to them, it is because Google.cn is more Chinese to them.”
The language thing is mostly a non-issue. If you’re in China and you enter Google.com into a fresh browser location bar, it dumps you to google.cn. Even before google.cn got off the ground, Google was already serving up Chinese-language pages based on IP geolocation, so it could just go back to that practice (as it does for Google versions in many other countries).
Hi Joel,
Yeah, Google.com will redirect you to Google.cn in China unless you click over to Google.com via the “Google.com in English” link at the bottom of Google.cn.
I’m not worried about Google being able to use IP geolocation to serve up the appropriate language. In fact, my post specifically cites that Google doing just that with Google.com should Google.cn cease may actually incur the wrath of the Chinese censors, thereby getting Google.com blocked in China as well…assuming it wasn’t automatically blocked the moment Google.cn was dismantled.
More importantly, what do you think about the possible outcomes? Do you think Google.com will be allowed to remain if Google.cn is shut down? Do you think no Google in China will be a better situation than today?
@Kai – “Do you think no Google in China will be a better situation than today?” – Yeah, OK, this is debatable, and I see there are strong arguments to say: “better to have G.com+G.cn than nothing at all”. Problem is, G.cn is sure to go, I can’t even imagine right now any way it can continue to function after Google’s blogpost (except perhaps a coup of the kuomindang)
But in the more likely event that G.cn goes down and G.com remains unblocked, I really can’t see anything but advantages.
Now, how likely is this to happen really? Well, funnily enough, I think it is quite likely if Google plays smart. Because as I said in the previous posts, if Google takes down G.cn without making a scene, the CCP might prefer to not make a scene as well, and they will punish Google in a more low-profile way: ie. by delaying licenses for telephones, etc.
I am being a bit optimistic here, but I think there is a fair chance for this to happen. Of course, then some months later, when the CCP finds out that Google.com has become the Alexa#3 of China and the international atmosphere is calmer, they wil have strong temptations to block it.
LoL, doubt it on the KMT.
I totally understand and agree with the advantages you outline in the fortuitous situation that Google.com remains accessible after Google.cn is taken down. That’s pretty much why I said all they need to do is make it more user-friendly (automatically switch the language to Chinese). I know they can collect user location, OS, and browser information (amongst other things), so it shouldn’t be hard to do that, as Joel mentioned them doing before.
So clearly, the disagreement is that I personally don’t see that as being likely. I also explicitly said, who knows, we might be pleasantly surprised, but I’m just not optimistic about that and I find it hard to be optimistic about that.
There’s no way Google can take down Google.cn without making a scene. The Western media will make a circus out of it even if Google wanted to let it go down quietly. The Western media WILL make a deal about Google.com still being available and all the ramifications of it, just like what you outlined.
Anyway, our difference isn’t so much in our understanding of how Google works as a search engine. We just have different expectations of how this will unfold. You think there’s a “fair chance” Google.com will remain unscathed as far as mainland China accessibility is concerned. I’m far more pessimistic and think it’ll either get the GFW block right away or it’ll get blocked the moment too many mainland Chinese netizens are using it.
You being right would make me VERY happy. Cheers.
@Joel: exactly, that is what I tried to explain in my post: Chinese people use google.cn for no important reason, just because they don’t care to go to google.com, which is just one click away.
BTW, there is a setting in your computer that affects the redirect, I don’t know what it is but in my computer it doesn’t redirect and in my colleagues’ it does. Must be according to the language setting in the OS or browser?
Choice doesn’t always equate to freedom. Sometimes choices are largely cosmetic. If that were the case then the National People’s Congress, which ostensibly is a multi-party legislature, is free as well. And though you did state that g.cn re-orders searches, I fail to see how this is really a choice. Both search engines still built from the same lists. Re-ordering a list doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more freedom.
And, this whole argument of choice can also be perverted by the CPC. Google was not only their whipping boy, but they could also cite it as proof of choice and thus freedom.
But I agree that Google’s choice of withdrawing from the Chinese ‘net may hurt users. But that’s kind of always been the truth, hasn’t it? Even by us referring to the separation done by the GFW and other tools as “The Chinese Internet”, we admit that the Internet is split. And with this split, anything on the Chinese side was probably never going to have a chance to succeed or change anything anyways.
City Gravy,
I agree that choice doesn’t always equate to freedom, but I know the choice I’m referring to here is not largely cosmetic. The indexes of both search engines, Baidu and Google, are ostensibly built from the same list (the same internet) but there are quantifiable and qualitative differences “of value” between the size of their indexes and the “engine” (algorithms) by which they determine the ranking of results. If you disagree with this, then what makes anyone choose Google over Bing and Yahoo?
When it comes to web searches, there’s more freedom because Google provides a valuable alternative (choice) when it comes to finding information on the internet.
The CCP can indeed pervert the argument of choice, but so what? They’ve already done it with a ton of things, haven’t they? Yet those for whom it matter most aren’t fooled, are they? How quiet the world would be if we never said something just because we feared someone else would twist it, misrepresent it, or pervert it.
Can you clarify what you’re trying to say with the last paragraph? I’m not sure I understand.
Thanks for the comment. Cheers.
“We just have different expectations of how this will unfold” – This.
However, I strongly disagree that google.cn “offered Chinese internet users valuable choice” and that their exit “will definitely look short-sighted and naive” when the CCP most likely blocks Google outright. In fact, I believe the opposite is true. The endgame here is freedom of speech. If every company and website and blogger decided, as you seem to here, that a principled stance (assuming of course that’s what this is) would be worse than maintaining the status quo, well then the internet in China would just be made up of a bunch of self-censors. Wouldn’t that be a shite state of affairs.
Also, while I see your point that less choice is less freedom, I think this is so because choice usually entails competition. As rural industry was able to whittle away the artificial profit margins of inefficient SOE’s, competition in the Chinese internet search engine market might see a slow untying of the restraints. However, I think Google’s foray into the market was not exceptional and this is not simply because Google just couldn’t hack it in China. It is also because the market is kept in favor of domestic producers (Baidu). Maybe Google and company reached a point where they thought, -we are NEVER going to get a fair shake at this, not until everyone is playing on the same field.
If choice were the sole deciding factor in contributing to freedom, then Yahoo and Bing could certainly contribute. They could even hire the google.cn staff. Unfortunately, it isn’t, choice is freedom in this sort of environment when it breeds competition. When the game is fixed, not so much.
Zuo Ai,
I never said their exit will look short-sighted and naive, I said Julen’s prediction that users of Google.cn will switch to Google.com resulting in more freedom on the Chinese internet will look short-sighted and naive.
I don’t see this as taking a principled stand vs. maintaining the status quo. I think that’s way too simplistic of a perspective that serves no one any practical good in the long run of a world that is hardly black and white. Instead, I see it as an issue of engagement versus isolation, that continued engagement keeps doors open for cooperation and mutual benefit, while isolation closes doors and fosters resentment and misunderstanding. What do you think?
Yes, I agree the availability of choice entails competition. I also agree there are protectionist policies in China that favor the domestic companies. However, I think that’s expected and it is up to an international company like Google to overcome them. That’s life. Nothing is fair, ever. If we threshed out all the protectionist policies or actions of the Chinese government, what do we blame next? That the Chinese people are racist prejudiced against foreign companies? That they’re unfairly predisposed to spelling “baidu” over “google”? We can always find something that is unfair. A successful company solves problems and overcomes challenges. That’s what it is about.
I understand your frustrations with unfair playing fields, but the world simply is never fair. Do you feel bad that Bing doesn’t have a fair playing field because Google commands a reinforcing market lead? That Google was the first mover? Nevermind Bing, let’s try Cuil or Wolfram Alpha. At some point, we need to adapt to an environment before we can conquer it. That’s just business sense.
I still don’t think NO Google in China will be a good thing for Chinese netizens, and will be of little benefit except for temporary self-satisfaction for those outside China.
I have to disagree. First, since the results are manipulated and the deck well stacked, it won’t leave such a terrible void in most Chinese people’s lives. The market will fill that void soon enough if it’s so gaping. Second, if google does indeed end up leaving China (a big if) it will do far more than merely cause Westerners some brief self-satisfaction. It will create a serious dilemma for other companies doing business with China and will force the world to rethink what it means to cooperate with China. I’m not saying that these are necessarily good things, but they would almost certainly happen. It would create all sorts of issues among China’s educated classes, whose support China counts on. There would have to be considerable loss of face for China as well, though it’s hard to say how much they care about that.
So while it would be a shame for the Chinese who use google to be deprived of a choice, no matter how manipulated and bastardized it may be, the greater effect would be on China’s reputation both among its own citizens and among the global community China has been eagerly courting. It would be a painful step backwards. Compared to this full-frontal assault on China’s reputation, the “self-satisfaction” that may be felt by some Westerners can only be described as trivial.
Now Google.com is useless in China. the “reset” actions are very uncertain. Even when a “normal” word is searched, you probably get a “reset”.
Great post! Very thorough and thoughtful analysis.
Good article, Kai Pan.
I just written a column article on google’s possible quit ““Google-China affair: the insider perspective” http://www.china-online-marketing.com/blog/google/google-china-affair-the-insider-perspective/“.
As I look at it, the simplest reason for “Google in China is bettern than no google in China” is the job lose, hundreds of thousands of people in China will lose their job if google quit.