On Tuesday, the world’s most famous internet company ended its four-year liaison with the world’s biggest Internet market.
But what fall-out Google’s decision to close its Chinese search-engine will have on other companies doing business in China, as well as on the 400 million internet users here, who log on every morning, still remains a matter of much debate.
Foreign firms based in China say Google’s two-month confrontation with the authorities has only underscored the difficulties many multinational companies routinely face in maintaining relationships with local authorities here.
This week also saw executives from Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto stand trial in Shanghai, accused of bribery and stealing commercial secrets. The executives pleaded guilty to the charges and face lengthy sentences, in a case which has worried many foreign firms about the pit-falls of doing business in a country where laws and regulations are often arbitrary and opaque.
A survey released this week by the American Chamber of Commerce here said 38 per cent of companies said they felt “unwelcome” in China, up from 26 per cent last year. Inconsistent regulations and laws were cited as their biggest concern.
But with 400 million Internet users, China has the world’s biggest Internet market, and most companies say dealing with local difficulties is a small price to pay for a piece of the pie.
One executive at Microsoft, who requested anonymity, said it was unlikely other companies would be influenced by Google’s decision. Microsoft’s search-engine Bing, which has so far struggled to establish itself in China, is slated to be one of the beneficiaries of Google’s decision to close its Chinese-language website Google.cn .
“It is highly unlikely that other companies will follow Google’s example,” echoed Chinese blogger and media commentator Michael Anti. “Most other companies simply will not have the guts to stand up to the government.”
But cynics argue Google’s “bravery” was partly inspired by its failure to penetrate the Chinese market, which has been dominated by Chinese search-engine Baidu. Analysts say domestic companies like Baidu, whose shares have risen by 50 per cent since Google first announced its decision in January, will have the most to gain from the Google episode.
Beyond bottom-lines, China’s ‘netizens’ fear that the absence of a substantial foreign presence is unhealthy for the development of the Internet in China, which some analysts say could become increasingly cut-off from the rest of the world.
Baidu’s search-engine, for instance, only provides links to Chinese-language websites, unlike multi-lingual Google. And, for subjects considered “sensitive” by the authorities, it generally only provides links to government-approved sources, like the Communist Party’s official newspapers.
Rights activists welcomed Google's decision to end four years of self-censorship, saying it would at least bring more awareness to Chinese Internet users about the government's censorship policies.
Users logging on to Google.cn this week were directed to Google's uncensored Hong Kong-based search-engine.
But Chinese authorities have moved quickly to restrict access to Internet users on the mainland to the website. While searches in English yielded uncensored results, any search in Chinese on a politically-sensitive issue, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, led to a blank screen with a message that has now become familiar for Chinese Internet users: "The connection has been reset."
