After what looked set to be the ultimate war of attrition, the dispute between Google and China appears to have ended with a fizzle rather than a bang.
With Google’s internet content provider license up for renewal recently it could have easily ended with China revoking their right to operate in the country. This would have been quite a blow for the internet giant as well as for the many Google loyal Chinese citizens.
With neither willing to fully back down on the issue of censorship it comes as little surprises that the dispute has been ended with a somewhat convoluted compromise. The major bone of contention had come with Google redirecting Chinese users to the unfiltered search site in Hong Kong. This action would eventually have halted any further operation for Google in China, so Google removed the redirect in favour of a landing page.
While it seems a minute change, users of google.cn will be provided with a landing page which when clicked will take them to the Hong Kong version. Minor as this is, it was part of the reconciliation that allowed both parties to maintain their stance and integrity and allow Google to renew their licence in China.
However, as a result Google has little strength (if any) left in China as a search provider.
The fact remains that in the effort to placate the Chinese government and maintain their licence to operate in the country, Google have backtracked on many of the issues which prompted the initial shutdown of their Chinese search page.
Of course, despite this Google are still clearly going to see this as a positive step as China has more internet users than any other country and is certainly a growing market that Google wants to at least be a part of.
As a result of the announcement, Google has seen its share price rise by 2.8% showing the undeniable strength in the Chinese market.
Google lawyer David Drummond said in an email statement:
“We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in china.”
Another way to look at it, is that Google search is practically dead in Chinese waters and all that can really be taken from it is that Google can maintain brand awareness and at least some level of alternative services.
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