I think it’s pertinent to mention that Google has now threatened to pull out of China if they are not uncensored:
In a surprise announcement, the group issued a veiled attack at Chinese censors and said it was prepared to shut down its operations there entirely if the authorities do not allow it to create an unfiltered search engine.
The company courted controversy in 2006 when it launched in China but, as a concession to the Communist government, agreed to filter the results available on its website for “inappropriate” content. It does not operate such filters in other major countries.
In a blog on the company’s website, its corporate development and chief legal officer, David Drummond, said Google did so then because of the “benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet”. However, he said a number of recent cyber attacks – apparently targeting human rights activists – and recent clampdowns on freedom of speech on the web “have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn… and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
This is an intriguing example of a so-called “people’s state” – the democratic ideal – fighting to limit and censor information and a private company (a “greedy, monopolistic, and evil capitalistic” one) looking make progress towards enabling human rights.
And even more important is why. Google does not have a conscience. It is not doing this for ethical reasons. Google stands to profit more if they open up more results to China and if Chinese people become more educated. Google’s services are tailored to educated, modern people. They are doing this because they are greedy and self-interested – and that is a good thing.
The Chinese State, on the other hand, clouds many of their decisions with rhetoric about “the greater good” and “the will of the people” – yet their actions, even if assuming their motives are genuine, inevitably lead to restrictions and limitations on human freedom.
Google has run the numbers on censorship – and it is no longer in their long-term, profit-driven self-interest to continue abiding by China’s laws. Hence, opportunities for positive change open up.
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Umm, since when is a communist authoritarian state been the democratic ideal? If this is your initial premise, can you really expect us to take you seriously? You might as well call Nazi Germany or Communist USSR a “democratic ideal”. None of these are in the least democratic.
“Google” is not a person, so of course it doesn’t have a conscience. It is OWNED and RUN by people though, who DO have consciences. They also have a motto of “do no evil”. Whether this is a legitimate statement of intent by the owners or administrators or merely a marketing platform, Google took a lot of heat for agreeing to abide by Chinese filtering laws in 2005. This may simply be a recognition that they have violated their motto and either offended the conscience of their owners/administrators OR that they have negated their marketing image at fiscal expense.
This is only true if they can’t trust the Chinese government to abide by contracts. If they CAN trust the Chinese government, Google can make huge amounts of money by accepting payments collected from the Chinese people by force (through taxation). If they CAN’T trust the Chinese government, then the same force used against the Chinese people can be exerted toward Google. The current complaint arguably has little to do with any humanitarian motivation and everything to do with Google responding to a direct attack by Chinese hackers who Google fears will steal trade secrets.
There is simply insufficient evidence to suggest that Google honestly wants the Chinese people to be more educated or that if they do that they want this for a profit motivation. Google did not take their current actions based on mandated censorship, but based on having been hacked. Had China not taken this action, Google would likely have continued censoring their data.
Losing the ability to do business in China would clearly have no benefit in educating Chinese users, but this really isn’t the goal Google has here. The goal is to a) comply with their conscience, b) maintain a marketing image to the rest of the world, and/or c) protect Google’s trade secrets by refusing access to the Chinese government into their systems.
As expected, it seems likely that China will not allow Google to flaunt its laws:
China Emphasizes Laws as Google Defies Censorship
Whatever happens, it is extremely unlikely that Google will be making more money as a result of educating the Chinese populous, as suggested by Colin.
Atanamis,
I am not saying that the actual on-the-ground Chinese state is an ideal – but that communism an ideal form of democracy.
You state this here:
and then say:
The answer to your second point is in the first. Google would lose money from the portion of the Chinese population which is educated and has the access to fully use it’s services. But I believe they would be making a lot more money because of a, b and c in your first point. The fact is that Google’s services require the long-term sustainability of a wide group of users who can actually access and utilise it’s services. A regime which limits freedom, information and education goes against Google’s business model – and Google (under it’s current model) cannot survive in the long term in such conditions.
This is opportunity cost – and the driving point of what I wrote. That the profit motive is not a “race to the bottom” but actually encourages a progressive movement towards both economic and social freedom.
China really does not need Google as they have thier own version which actually does rival Google in many ways and actually made some money on the stock for BIDU. In fact, I would not be suprised if Google left out of China BIDU would basicaly rip all the code from Google and make a Google clone for all the aps but obviously more tightly controlled. The only one who loses in this is Google and if Google pulls out of China I would seriously think of shorting GOOG and buying BIDU as they just lost all thier competition.
Google has taken over 25-30% of the Chinese search market in 4 years of being there. BIDU stock has ALREADY gone up significantly based on the news that Google was considering withdrawing, and would go up a great deal more immediately if Google does withdraw. Shorting Google regardless is almost certain to lose you money, since Google makes less than 300 million a year from its China business. This whole issue is about pocket change to Google. The Chinese people WANT Google to be in their country though, which is the only reason Google wasn’t immediately shut down when they sent their ultimatum. The Chinese government is measuring how much support Google has in country, either to decide to allow Google to continue or to chomp down on that support after kicking Google out. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Either way, I highly suggest you get some sound financial counseling since your present view of stock investment seems incredibly weak.