Google and China Friends Again…For Now
“Google is in a relationship.”
That’s what the search marketing giant’s Facebook status would say, if they had one..
In a relationship with China of course…and I’m sure everyone is guessing – it’s more than likely a little complicated.
With China’s recent decision to approve Google’s Internet Content Provider (ICP) licence, citizens in the People’s Republic can once again enjoy a slew of somewhat filtered access to search listings.
“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, ” David Drummond, SVP,, wrote on Google’s blog on Friday.
As we all know, Google was ready to shut down their China operations after a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on Gmail accounts and other Google business products.
Even though Google is s till not thrilled with the idea of censoring results….regardless, its still a good move to strengthen advertiser confidence.
In terms of market share, Google is the leading search engine (in most markets) however, they are still trailing rival Baidu – dropping from 33% to 29%…while Baidu has hovered steadily around 65%.
And yes, Google.cn still has to re-direct to a landing page in Hong Kong – and most advertisers feel like this plays a large role in reducing market share.
So, how can Google begin to leverage their brand to increase access and usability in the United States.
Well, last week Politico ran a story called – Google Search: Political Power. Of course, the featured was referring to CEO Eric Schmidt’s close ties with various political and financial leaders.
If only Schmidt would take a few more trips to Beijing instead of Washington. Of course it probably wouldn’t do any good to start cutting checks to Chinese based candidates (as he’s been more than willing to do in the United States) – a little extra tea hasn’t hurt anyone.
As China’s economy, Internet access and Western competition continue to grow…it would be behoove them to harness the former and fend off the latter.
Can they do this? That remains to be seen.
This is just one section of issues Google has heating up…including a growing mobile market and the release of Google OS..slotted for Q4 of this year.
On that note – its time to watch another YouTube video.
As always, I hope you found the above information somewhat informative…I value your comments and feedback!
