Google vs. China

Recently, a good friend and I have entered into a bet involving the Google – China fiasco.

My side - likely scenario, Google will likely leave China. However I also entertain, and hope for, the idea that China may be backed into a corner and lift it’s skirt a bit.

My friends side - Google will absolutely not leave China and China will certainly not modify it’s laws.

The Story:

For those of you that are unaware or vague on the details of this issue, allow me to present the back story. Earlier this month Google announced it, and up to 30 other silicon valley based companies, had been victims of a cyber-attack aimed at obtaining intellectual property.  Google quickly made this a very public matter, and urged many of the other 30 companies to also go public with this information. Several Gmail accounts, mostly Chinese Human Rights activists, were compromised although reports indicated that the contents of the accounts were had not been infiltrated.

During this announcement, Google also expressed concern about the Chinese laws centered around government censorship and stated that it would no longer censor it’s searches. Google rolled back it’s self-censored filters and sent most of it’s China HQ staff on paid leave to investigate the recent hack attempts.

The issue has now risen beyond business ethics straight into the world of politics. Last Thursday, Hillary Clinton made a public speech about  internet freedom, which seemingly stemmed directly from Google’s decision to stand up to China and those who would censor internet freedom. Obviously, China was not very happy with her remarks and their mouth piece blasted the U.S. for being hypocritical.

Opinion:

Google, being a business that is ran on the foundation of it’s reputation and ethics, would be shooting itself in the foot to make a stance against such a blatant crime against internet freedom without any kind of follow through. While I fully understand that it has dumped a lot of money into launching and operating in China, I don’t believe they would have made the issue so completely public and continue to draw attention to it without being prepared to follow through.

Google has also been hit with bad press about opening and censoring themselves in China to begin with. Since their launch in 2006 Google has only managed to take a small share of the search market in China. Their slim hold in China may also be a deciding factor in Google being so willing to pull out as it may not be such a lucrative investment after all. What better way to bring in more business and attract more clients, as well as brush of a directed attack and infiltration, then to make someone else out to be the bad guy and protest them publicly.

Whether it’s a PR stunt, or a true ethical issue driving their decision, I really don’t see Google as a company willing to make idol threats of this caliber.

Leave some feedback, what do you think of the situation?

(and yes I realize the irony of using a Google owned blogging service to post this.)