Rick, Post 2, Google in China

1. From a business perspective, what are the arguments for and against entering the market for Internet search in China in 2005?

For:

· China's large population, a rapidly growing percentage of which were becoming Internet users.

· Opportunity to establish foothold during an economic boom.

· Large potential advertising market, which is Google's primary revenue source.

Against:

· Highly competitive market in which Baidu has an advantage due to its close relationship with the Chinese government.

· Google is less well-known and perceived more negatively than Baidu.

· Chinese government interferes with normal business operations due to censorship policies, resulting in substandard service.

· Low actual advertising revenues.

2. From an ethical perspective, what are the arguments for and against entering the market for Internet search in China in 2005?

For:

· Offer an alternative to search engines with excessive state involvement.

Against:

· The Chinese government exercises control over free flow of information and Google, contrary to its company values, would give Chinese citizens a distorted view of the world.

· Google would possibly have to work with the Chinese government, which has a long history of human rights violations, to essentially become part of a nationwide spy network.

· Google could be coerced into violating privacy standards, similar to what Yahoo! did with Shi Tao and Zhao Jing.

3. If Google decides to enter China, how can it do so while mitigating ethically adverse impacts? Please formulate possible options and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

It is difficult to see how Google could ethically enter the Chinese market. One of the only options I can think of is a compromise in which Google allows the Chinese government to censor search results and access Google's records about Chinese citizens, but Google would not be obligated to allow access to private information about anyone outside of China's borders. This would allow Google to have a presence in China's market as well while operating within China's standard rules. However, this is still not exactly a good situation for Google and I doubt the Chinese government would agree to the terms anyway.

4. What do you think Google should do, and why?

Google is a corporation like any other. Although its informal motto is "Don't be evil," its primary directive is creating shareholder wealth. China is a massive market and if they don't get in there, they will be missing out on a huge growth opportunity.

However, Google is violating their own mission of making information freely accessible to everyone by being party to what is likely the largest instance of state censorship in history.

In this age of the Internet, people should be concerned about electronic privacy rights. We can see what happens to people the Chinese government views as a threat, such as Shi Tao, and how the government uses the Internet as essentially a network for spying on its citizens. As a Google user myself, I don't like knowing that Google would possibly have to provide a customer's personal, private information for such a nefarious purpose. I also don't like thinking that their service could be used to monitor people as a means of squelching free expression.

Due to the fact that the nature of operating in China means compromising its basic services and ethics, I don't see how Google can ethically expand its operations into China.