It’s hard for a great majority of people that have only lived in the United States to grasp subjects and decisions taken by companies in foreign markets. More than once I’ve found myself discussing business in other countries with fellow classmates, and ended on a bad note. So a discussion about Google in China is bound to lead me on a path like the one described above, but here goes. I admire Google’s decision to pull out of China, because the turmoil that they were causing as a search giant, and their ability to pinpoint just how devoid the people of China with regards to freedom of information on the internet was massive. Sure, they are giving up a huge market, of over “400 million users” (The Independent) but the harm that they were causing, in my opinion, outweighed the profits. When I think about it, opening Google.cn was a move in the “belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed [their] discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.” (Google Blog) But making information available, and then censoring results like the government wanted is completely against what Google believes as a company. Google believes in an open Internet, in the organization of the information of the world. So that anybody can access it, and censoring results does not hold true to what has made them successful thus far. Its just a shame that, like many have said, “Nobody will come out of this unscathed. Whether it’s the Chinese users who no longer have any competition driving domestic search engines to improve their services or Google shareholders who don’t get paid a piece of the China pie.” (Zdnet) I appreciate Google, because for the most part, except for one episode when Google sided with Verizon on the open internet policies in the United States (not to be mentioned because I’m hurt by it), they stand by their ideals, and promote the openness that they preach with every step they take toward global dominance of the waves of information across the world.
The Independent:
Google Blog:
Zdnet:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/google-pullout-from-china-imminent/1830
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