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DailyTech Poll Discussion Should Google leave the Chinese search market?
Brandon Hill (Blog) - January 14, 2010 4:27 PM
Print 21 comment(s) - last by PitViper007.. on Jan 20 at 3:59 PM
Google claims that its systems have been attacked by Chinese-based computers and that it is fed up with sensors/blocked content

Should Google leave the Chinese search market?
  • Yes (2,982 votes)
  •  
    74%
  • No (635 votes)
  •  
    16%
  • I'm not sure (416 votes)
  •  
    10%

  • 4,033 total votes

Comments     Threshold


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I don't think so...
By therealnickdanger on 1/15/2010 4:23:13 PM , Rating: 4
My take on this is coming more from captialist mindset than anything else. Google's presence in China represents the possibility to potentially rub some American influence on them. I'm not saying that Google will "bring down the wall", but I think that the more Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart we get over the there, the more likely it is that China's lower class citizens get for a better future. People often blame big corporations in America for keeping "so many" people here living in poverty, but "poverty" in America means two TVs and air conditioning in 90%+ households below said poverty line. Americans don't know what poverty is.

Many of China's poorest are essentially prisoners of the factories they work in. Having the potential to work for Wal-Mart or Best Buy as opposed to making the items they sell could mean the difference between starvation and a better life. I may be arguing for the lesser of two evils, but that's life.




RE: I don't think so...
By mindless1 on 1/15/2010 9:57:21 PM , Rating: 5
Umm, China's lower class aren't the ones working in those factories. They're the ones HOPING TO SOME DAY WORK IN THOSE FACTORIES!

I don't think you have seen much poverty in the US either though, go to some rural areas where the kids don't eat anything till lunch-time at school, where they don't have money to pay the electric bill letalone run the A/C off it which also needs repaired, where they sleep in the living room in the winter b/c the furnace is busted too and their space heater can only heat one room.

I don't doubt that some in China have it even worse, the above was only a comment about how the poverty line isn't really a line between having little and having nothing worth having, the line is lower than that.


RE: I don't think so...
By JediJeb on 1/18/2010 2:00:08 PM , Rating: 2
You probably don't even need to go into the rural areas to find such conditions in the US. Ever seen some of the dumps that are called apartments deep in the inner cities? Some of the worst hit are the eldery. Many have very little income and no family to help. Their retirements are based on what was a good wage 30 years ago or just a little social security that barely covers the cost of food. Suburban areas are the sweetspot so to speak, where it is mainly those who can afford to leave the city or rural areas live.

Thing is though, I know some who live in the rural areas beside me who just make enough for electricity and a little gas to go get groceries, yet they are the happiest people around, probably because they are not constantly worried about how to pay for their big house and multiple cars and boats that are mortgaged way beyond what they are worth.


RE: I don't think so...
By Murloc on 1/16/10, Rating: 0
Actually, the option they need is...
By Motoman on 1/15/2010 11:09:22 AM , Rating: 5
..."Just ignore them."

Google can shut the door of it's building in China and throw away the key, so in that sense "leave China" - but all they really need to do is just stop doing anything special for China at all.

It's the interweb. You don't "leave" a country on the interweb. If China's anti-human-rights government chooses to blacklist Google on their Great Firewall, then that's their problem. Not Google's.




RE: Actually, the option they need is...
By Qapa on 1/15/2010 6:11:18 PM , Rating: 3
You're only "kind of" right...

You forgot 2 details:

1 - They now have offices there, so they would really close shop and "leave" the country.

2 - I assume china is blocking all other search engines, namely all other "google.<something>" other than "google.cn". So, if they stop making this special filters china wants, they - as a search engine - will no longer be available. In other words, they, as a search engine, will leave china.

Point 2, doesn't usually happen elsewhere, but china blocks sites... so it is "kind'a" possible...


By noxipoo on 1/18/2010 1:24:10 PM , Rating: 2
2. you are right, google.com is blocked, i couldn't get anything but the chinese google to come up. i didn't try to get around it though.


Baidu up to the task, i think not.
By toyotabedzrock on 1/15/10, Rating: 0
RE: Baidu up to the task, i think not.
By CZroe on 1/15/2010 2:45:07 PM , Rating: 5
THEY'RE LOSING THEIR grip over THERE!


By foolsgambit11 on 1/19/2010 6:21:40 PM , Rating: 2
Well, THAN, YOUR so much better at English THEN him...

Wait. Strike that, reverse it.


Meh
By umop apisdn on 1/15/2010 9:20:24 AM , Rating: 4
Looking for the "Do not care." option...




RE: Meh
By hadifa on 1/18/2010 1:02:22 AM , Rating: 2
Well, being part of Humanity body, there is no "Don't care option".

Not in the global village anyway, where we can't claim I didn't know, haven't heard!


Too much to lose
By alanore on 1/17/2010 8:11:26 AM , Rating: 1
I don't think google can afford to lose the potential ad revenue of 1 billion people. Pulling out now would hurt their long term position with the regin.




RE: Too much to lose
By Dabruuzer on 1/18/2010 9:47:10 AM , Rating: 1
And that, to me, is the real motivator behind any move that is going to be made here. Just as with most any huge business focused solely on profit. Not altruism or politics - simply dollar bills.


RE: Too much to lose
By glennc on 1/19/2010 8:32:26 PM , Rating: 2
they only have 30% market share


RE: Too much to lose
By alanore on 1/20/2010 8:31:19 AM , Rating: 2
US: 300m people X 72% market share = 216 million potential user

China 1300m X 30% market share = 390 million potential users.

I know that doesn't factor in the true economics of the situation. Like disposable income, ad revenue per click, percentage of population online, user utilization.

Not to mention the cost involved in getting 30% marketshare. Just to throw it away?

Then where does that leave google within the region? It will damage there brand to the point it would take years or decades to recover to the same marketshare.

Just looking at the economics of the situation I would bet my bottom dollar on google staying.


China
By hiscross on 1/15/10, Rating: -1
RE: China
By mindless1 on 1/15/2010 10:02:47 PM , Rating: 3
The big deal is they are people just like you or I, simply born on a piece of earth a few miles distant. They weren't born seeking a communist life, the were born into the country that can oppress them.

You or I could have just as easily been born into a worse life than we have, wouldn't it be nice if we then had a chance to make a better life for ourselves?

There needs to be more to life than working only to survive, if nothing else there is that grand idea of the betterment of mankind, that there is a lot of potential amongst 1 billion + people, often wasted potential.


RE: China
By PitViper007 on 1/20/2010 3:59:31 PM , Rating: 2
In other words:

There, but for the grace of God, go I.


RE: China
By ipay on 1/18/2010 1:32:00 PM , Rating: 2
they're


"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA









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