Google’s Fight with China Comes to an End- Ali Ellinger
So Google is officially withdrawing its business from China, sort of, after a long and
contentious battle. While it is difficult for me, as an American, to understand how a
seemingly basic technology like a search engine could cause such a cultural and political
upheaval, after learning more of the details, it is much clearer to me. As Americans, we
often take technology, free speech, and privacy for granted, and then get up in arms when
the government even considers “Big Brother” ideas like a national identification card.
Other countries, however, never get to experience this type of freedom. The Chinese
government has always held a tight reign on its people, and increasingly so with the
emergence and growth of the Internet.
The Chinese government strictly monitors, censors and tracks Internet users in their
country to locate and keep tabs on dissidents. Google promotes the opposite of this type of
censorship. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who left the Soviet
Union to come to the United States in order to be free from this type of Communist
dictatorship and control. Therefore, it only makes sense that a company like Google would
not expand globally into a country that promotes the very thing Brin left behind. Business,
however, is never that simple. Google could make tremendous profits from entering China,
a financial powerhouse with enormous market potential.
According to an interview Brin conducted with Fortune Magazine, Google decided to enter
China because "(they) felt that by participating there, and making (their) services more
available, even if not to the 100% that (they) ideally would like, that it will be better for
Chinese web users, because ultimately they would get more information, though not quite
all of it."
My classmates in International Entrepreneurship put together a great presentation relative
to Google’s options for its China strategy, pointing out that because China’s policies have
become increasingly strict since the Beijing Olympics came to a close, Google would
ultimately be forced to make a finite decision to dilute its mission or leave. Only days after
their presentation, Google announced its plan to exit China on Monday, March 22, 2010.
While this may not come as a surprise, shareholders held mixed reviews as the tech
company made this decision made more by heart than by wallet.
To the average member of the public, controversial decisions like this may seem atypical
for a tech company, but the impact of global expansion is enormous, and choices must be
examined from all angles. Google’s mission, "to organize the world's information and make
it universally accessible and useful", is not necessarily a value that is revered
internationally, and the ramifications of expansion and exit decisions will not only affect
their shareholders, but also their growth strategy moving forward.
It will be interesting to follow how Google’s entrance into and exit from China will change
their global positioning in the long term.