Google shuts down in China

For curious internet users in mainland China looking to find information on the Web, they can no longer can say they “Google-it.” The search engine giant pulled out of the Chinese market this past March citing their refusal to continue censoring and filtering search engine results for the Chinese government and accuse China of attempting to hack into their infrastructure. 

According to an official statement posted on Google’s blog, “Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers.”
 
In an earlier statement made by Google in January, the attacks targeted Google’s infrastructure and security in December 2009 and originated from China. Following the hacks, the search engine company made significant changes to their operations in China, mainly to cease any censorship of their search results.
 
According to Chinese officials who spoke to Xinhua News agency, Google “violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its search services and blaming China, in insinuation, for alleged hacker attacks.”
 
Despite requests from Chinese officials to Google, the search engine giant decided not to comply with the country’s laws again and decided to shut down its search engine site and redirecting users to the Hong Kong site which has no search result restrictions.
 
Since entering the Chinese market, Google has been in heated competition against a number of China-based search engine entities for the country’s vast, and potentially profitable, market share. At the end of its quest, analysts estimate Google’s market share of China to be around 30 percent compared to Baidu Inc.’s 60 percent. With Google’s departure, the market is more open for other competitors including Sogou and up-and-coming search engine company Tencent.
 
Prior to all the controversy, Google had made great strides in China. Google’s foray into China started in January 2006 with a search engine that was compliant to the censoring laws in China. Many companies were seeing flourishing results from Google’s advertising platform and Google also launched a music search site in August 2008 with China-based company Top100.cn to provide a free and legal music download service.
 
Despite Google’s surge into the market, the company still found tough competition against the already solidified Baidu who maintained its majority market share throughout the years. Upon its exit, Google’s share price started to dip below Baidu’s.
 
Google’s search engine site was not the only online service that came into China’s question. In March of last year, China blocked access to YouTube, and in June of 2009 the government also restricted access to Gmail, Twitter, Google Talk, Google Image Search, Google Books and other applications were subsequently blocked.
 
Whatever the reasons were for Google’s exit, the largest search engine market in the world has a vast window of opportunity with Google’s absence. Time will tell if Google decides to return to the country or if Baidu can further solidify its hold. Other competitors including Tencent and Sogou have an opportunity now to claim some of the market share now as well. One should remember, though, that Google isn’t the only search engine entity based in the U.S. Microsoft and Yahoo could have their sights set on this region as well and with Google not participating, the competition has suddenly become a little less heated.