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Failure of Google in China
Failures of Google in China
In China the internet industry is fast evolving and is highly competitive. Gross estimates reveal that the number of internet users in China was about three hundred and eight five million in the year 2009. Internet use in China has grown in parallel to the skyrocketing growth of the internet users all over the world. A survey conducted in China revealed that people in sixty of China’s largest cities spend seventy percent of their leisure time on the internet and the online advertising in China has recently grown by up to thirty per cent per year, twice the growth of the print media. The internet search industry in China is dominated by a number of players, chief among them Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Sohu and Sina. Google and Baidu dominated the Chinese market accounting for more than three-quarters of the market share (John, 2010).
In 2006, the world’s famous internet giant, Google launched its services in the People’s Republic of China with a strong belief that this would open up access to information for the Chinese people. A few years later, Google announced reports that its Chinese subsidiary was experiencing troubles from the government which was constantly monitoring e-mail communication of certain key human rights activists and groups. In spite of its global authority in the internet market, Google was now considering withdrawing from the Chinese market for obvious reasons of discontent with the government’s activities. In spite of its well articulated intentions, Google was launched amid widespread criticism. Its launch enabled Google to create an authoritative presence in the fast growing oriental search market. In return for running its services in China Google entered into an agreement with the Chinese government to block some websites. Because of this self-imposed censorship, anybody people conducting searches on the google.cn encountered an error prompt message informing them that the pages they were about to view have been banned by the central government in accordance with the state laws, policies and regulations (Erick, 2010).
Actually Google’s journey in the Chinese market was hampered with lots of roadblocks. First the approval process from the Chinese market took unreasonably long time. The official license to conduct business in china was granted eighteen months after the development of Google.cn. This was in September 2007 and in the following year the Chinese regulators started hurling rebukes at Google and other internet players of making pornography available to the locals through their search engines. Baidu and Sina made formal apology to the members of the public concerning the said issue but Google did not apologize and this marked the beginning of Google’s troubles with the Chinese government. In June 2009, the Chinese authorities announced that Google.cn had been suspended from searching foreign web sites and also from its associative search functions, in response to Google’s failure to respond effectively to the criticism from the authorities which required that it removed pornographic content from its website search results. This stern directive was a big blow to Google as most of its users were pushed away to its rival, Baidu (Erick, 2010).
Again in October 2009, Google found itself embroiled in a bitter tussle with the Chinese authorities over copyright issues. The tussle emerged from the fact that Google had made a breach of the copyright law by publishing in its online library works by Chinese writers without their consent or that of their publishers. Google later apologized for the infringement but then the damage had been made. Amid this confusion over the position of Google in China, Google.cn chief executive officer resigned. This dealt the internet search a big blow and eventually saw the internet giant exit from the Chinese market thereby making Baidu the main internet search provider in China (Austin, 2009).
The exit of Google from china has left Baidu with over sixty per cent market command in online search. However, critics say that Baidu has not yet fully been able to meet the online demands of locals. The Chinese search market requires a number of advanced features so as to fully actualize and meet all the demands of the Chinese internet users. First, the Chinese is a multi-dialect language and any search engine has to bear in mind that there is no universality in the Chinese language. For instance, Baidu has a target of being the best Chinese language search engine. To this end Baidu has customized and designed its products and services in such a manner that they suit the needs and requirements of search users and online marketers. Searches in Chinese language need strong competence in well pin-pointed queries more especially in the phonetic searches.
Google’s internet crisis in China has been caused by a number of other factors besides interference from the central government. Some of these are:
Google has not been actively involved in reaching out the mobile internet market unlike other internet service providers like Baidu (Patricio, 2010).
Second, many Chinese internet users only prefer Baidu over the giant Google. Actually Baidu has had the reputation of being the first internet search company that that is of more Chinese appeal than any other. This makes Google a preserve of a few elite citizens who are only interested in showing differences. Interesting enough these elites who use Google prefer Google. Com over Google.cn (Patricio, 2010)
Baidu has actually designed especially well customized search that allows users to enter Chinese keywords based on their corresponding Chinese dialect and pronunciation using the English alphabet. This strategy was actually meant to avoid the tedious process of switching from the English alphabet to Chinese character while inputting. Also the feature gives confidence to the users who are not certain of Chinese keyword characters. Therefore any new search engine aspiring to enter the Chinese market has to take these special features of the Chinese language into account during the design of its search engine or else it meets with acute difficulties in penetrating the largely conservative Chinese market (Owen, 2010). Another important feature of the search engine should be its ability to determine the web page independence with regard to a particular search query and also the relevance of the web page to the search query in question. This technique then calls for use of such special features as link analysis, web crawling, information analysis and Chinese language processing software. For the processing of the Chinese language, Baidu search engine employed a word segmentation technique and also utilized an encoding method that is based on the special characteristics of the Chinese language. Inclusion of these features in the design of the search engine actually will allow for reliable and simple searching experience for Chinese internet users (Patricio, 2010).
The other special feature to be taken into account is the design of a simple but user friendly platform for online marketing. All internet service providers are fully aware of China’s position on global economy and the marvelous growth of its local market. The online marketing platform should include among its special features a pay for performance platform and of course custom tailored marketing solutions. For instance Baidu’s auction based pay for performance platform can allow customers to place their website links on its search result list. The customers can then bid to determine what they are willing to pay each time somebody clicked on their listings in the Baidu website search results. This feature, unlike the traditional forms of online advertising, has proven to be more efficient as it is cost and time effective (Ellen & Steven, 2010).
There are a number opportunities and risks associated with the implementation of the new search engines in China. Everybody knows that the internet has provided a super highway for flow of information. The internet market in China is faced with a lot of growth opportunities as well as impediments. First, rapid growth is possible due to China‘s huge population. With an estimated population of two billion people and an ever growing internet industry, internet firms in china stand to make a fortune. This however might not be achieved as easy as sounds for a number of reasons: First is the censorship policy by the government. The government is deeply involved in monitoring the activities of political and human rights activists and their freedom to communicate freely is under curtails. The next major impediment revolves around the cultural and legal sphere. A new search engine has to take into account the possibility of operating under a daunting legal environment masked with a totally different cultural attitude. This arises usually as a result of different historical experiences (David, 2010).
The next frontier of contention with regard to launch of new search engine in China is in the copyright and information highway. The Chinese authorities have enforced very stringent measures for protecting Chinese writers and publishers against online library service providers (Patricio, 2010).
Another major impediment is illegal and offensive content. As pointed earlier this was one of the issues that pushed Google into logger heads with the authorities in china. Illegal content entails a lot in the context of Chinese laws and includes hate propaganda and speeches, pornography, obscenity, defamation and libel. The authorities are clear on these issues and stiff penalties have been met by internet search providers who have been found to violate them, the freedom of speech and expression policy notwithstanding. The other one is imposition of bans on the publication of trial evidence. Aspiring internet search providers in China jut like the rest of media of media are restricted from publishing information and evidence arising from court proceedings (Robert, 2010). The bans on publications are actually an attempt to safeguard against abuse by the media. The other frontier is personal privacy. The authorities in China do not allow for unfair infringement of other people’s rights chief among them the right to privacy. The privacy act has created a tort of privacy which is actionable without proof of damage. Privacy entails eavesdropping and disguised surveillance which includes electronic invasions on other people’s lives.
Dealing with the crisis
Hence it is clear that Google’s troubles in China cannot be entirely blamed on the perceived government hacking as several other internet service providers are victims of the same brutality and yet they are still in business (Erick, 2010). One retaliatory mechanism requires that Google engages in an all-round active strategy aimed at reaching the Chinese masses that are increasingly turning to the use of mobile internet. One reason for this is that mobile phones are increasingly becoming much cheaper than computers. Tapping in this opportunity will see Google’s market share in the industry soar. This can be achieved through a series of active market campaigns (Erick, 2010).
Another recommendation is that Google engages in bilateral talks with the Chinese government based on mutual respect for each other’s interests. In China, censoring of media by the government is not something that Google can just wish away. It is a bitter reality which Google has to succumb to if at all the internet search giant has to take roots in the vast communist market. And better still Google should be prepared at all times to account for violations of any obligation in the light of Chinese authorities (David, 2010).
Another remedial tactic is that Google should aim at building a service empire that is clearly relevant in the context of the Chinese culture. Most of Google’s services are unfavorably skewed towards a Western culture and this is where Baidu beats Google. Google has to greatly involve Chinese sociologists, ethnographers and anthropologists in the design process of its Chinese version of the search engine (Owen, 2010). This will help Google consolidate its loyalty in the oriental market.
Another thing is that Google should be prepared to meet with stiff competition. Google’s policy should be that of not underestimating her competitors. Google should acknowledge the presence of other internet search companies in the Chinese market and be ready to work with them as the terms of the business will dictate. No business company no matter how mighty should assume obvious penetration into a new market (Patricio, 2010).
Bibliography
Austin, M, 2009, “Google China and Baidu apologize over porn links”,The register.
David, D, 2010, “A new approach to China”, the official Google blog.
Ellen, N. & Steven, M, 2010, “Google threatens to leave China after attack on activists e-mail” The Washington Post.
Erick, S, 2010, “Google processing 20000 terabytes a day and it is growing”, TechCrunch
Erick, K, 2010, “Google unveils top political searches of 2009”, Political ticker blog.
John, M, 2010, “Google does the right thing in China but not with right intensions”, Consumer Watchdog.
Owen, F, 2010, “Don’t blame us for Google hack” ITBusiness.ca
Patricio, R, 2010, “Is Google’s China threat really a business maneuver”, econsultancy blog.
Robert, M, 2010, “Google hackers break into more than hundred computers systems”, ITBusiness.ca
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