Go Google!

While Google’s recent declaration of pulling out of China has been described as foolish, it might have been even more embarrassing if China had been the one to forcefully eject them.

Of course, when the world’s foremost search engine company enters the largest internet community only to find itself rebuffed at every turn, it’s inevitably a lose-lose situation. Google’s speed and effectiveness have gained it worldwide popularity; except in China, where it finds itself accused of being the bad guy for cooperating with Beijing’s filtering policies. And recently, Google’s greatest nightmare has been that even these compromises haven’t enabled it to surpass Baidu, China’s homegrown search engine.

At the same time, these issues are not unique to Google. China’s cyber-police periodically shut down a variety of websites, both foreign and Chinese (including Taiwanese sites), although this is the first time they’ve drawn so much attention. That alone should be reason enough for Google to continue its battle against hackers and overwhelming Beijing censorship in order to fulfill its duty to open vast Chinese information resources, rather than walking off and leaving the task to smaller websites.

Google announced its intent to exit the Chinese market as early as three years ago, but it stayed. And, while it never surpassed Baidu, its market share did grow substantially. Whether Google is having trouble adapting to China, bearing the pressure of its political climate or simply trying to employ a strategy of retreating in order to advance, it’s safe to say that the company’s venture into China has given rise to a multifaceted set of complications that need to be carefully approached and handled. On the other hand, Beijing also needs to do its part to gradually shed its ideological armor, just as its past choice to take a course of economic liberalization led to the rapid development of today.

To put it simply, a company like Google can’t just view China as a market to be abandoned the moment profit margins dip slightly. At the same time, as the recent copyright infringement case illustrates, Google is learning that it can’t indefinitely sustain business endeavors that lose money. This, then, is the lesson it should learn from its experience in China.