{"id":181484,"date":"2010-01-14T19:53:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T00:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=58624"},"modified":"2010-01-14T19:53:39","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T00:53:39","slug":"google-in-china-ex-microsoft-vp-kai-fu-lee%e2%80%99s-past-report-might-point-to-what-went-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/181484","title":{"rendered":"Google in China: Ex-Microsoft VP Kai-Fu Lee\u2019s Past Report Might Point to What Went Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Internet<\/a>, culture<\/a>, Analysis<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"Google\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGregory T. Huang wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the fascinating maelstrom that is Google in China, one thing is clear: this affects all of us. It\u2019s not about whether Google\u2019s decision to draw a line in the sand is based on ideals versus profits. It\u2019s not about whether the Chinese government will open up its Internet policies and play ball with the rest of the world. It\u2019s about the future of every company on the Web—including Microsoft, Amazon, RealNetworks, and all the smaller companies out there.<\/p>\n

In case you haven\u2019t been following every twist<\/a> and turn<\/a>, earlier this week Google said<\/a> it might pull out of China following its investigation of a cyber attack that it says originated in China, targeting at least 20 large companies (including Google). One apparent goal of the attacks was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google said it is \u201cno 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s statement is very carefully worded. It doesn\u2019t explicitly accuse Chinese officials of any wrongdoing. But the reactions of a lot of people, from the media to tech-business leaders to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have helped portray the situation as a cut and dried \u201cGoogle (and freedom of information) vs. China (and censorship)\u201d issue.<\/p>\n

I want to tackle one piece of this sprawling puzzle. And that is the huge, ongoing cultural challenge that Google, Microsoft, and other western companies face in setting up business operations in China. No, this is not a new issue. But one part of the Google announcement was particularly telling: \u201cWe want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google has now been up and running in China for four years. That is not a lot of time to build deep relationships. And it certainly doesn\u2019t help that Google\u2019s biggest competitor in China, Baidu, is backed by the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

Heading up Google\u2019s China effort until recently was Kai-Fu Lee, the controversial ex-Microsoft vice president who founded Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing in 1998. Lee, a Chinese high-tech celebrity and education leader, was head of Google China from 2006 until last September, when he left the company to create an incubator in Beijing<\/a> for Chinese high-tech startups.<\/p>\n

In my view, it may not be a coincidence that the current situation has come about so soon after Lee’s departure. Frankly, I\u2019m surprised this all didn\u2019t come to a head much sooner for Google. But perhaps it was through Lee\u2019s efforts that it didn\u2019t—or maybe, conversely, it\u2019s part of why Lee left Google. (I\u2019ve pinged him for comment, but haven\u2019t heard back on this topic.)<\/p>\n

Which brings me to some analysis. Back in 2003, while he was at Microsoft, …Next Page »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Internet, culture, Analysis Gregory T. Huang wrote: In the fascinating maelstrom that is Google in China, one thing is clear: this affects all of us. It\u2019s not about whether Google\u2019s decision to draw a line in the sand is based on ideals versus profits. It\u2019s not about whether the Chinese government will open up its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}