Since the launch of Google.cn in Jan 2006, Google did try hard in China to gain market share from local search leader Baidu. If you look at the contents available in google.cn and compare those with that Google has for the US market, you can tell Google did spend effort in pleasing the local Chinese users, and give them love by being more “Chinese” or localized. The Chinese music content on google.cn is one of the examples. The US search giant struggled between intellectual properties and joining the Chinese online community that don’t care too much about copyright.
It’s never easy for any US company to walk away from the China market today where purchasing power, size of internet users, GDP, and influence in the international political stage are rising at alarming rate. But “don’t do evil” seems to remain as a prevailing core value for Google which has been surfaced once again in times of facing devil. So many companies claim to have code of conduct or whatsoever mission statement, but few could exercise it when it comes to making critical business decisions.
Rumors are saying google.cn planned to withdraw from China by Feb 2010. After video conference with Eric Schmidt on Thursday 14 Jan, employees at Google China in Beijing understood it’s high time to say goodbye. Thank you for not giving up in a tough market in the last 4 years where competitors and authorities had never been friendly.
