Google tests fate in China after multiple shutdowns
STEVE CHIOTAKIS: Today, China’s third most popular website dropped Google’s search engine from its site. Just a week after Google blamed the Chinese government for blocking its Gmail service.
Marketplace’s China Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz reports, there’s even more bad news for the search giant.
ROB SCHMITZ: It looks like Google maps will be the next thing to go — tomorrow is the government-imposed deadline for Google to submit its application to keep providing the map service in China. Google hasn’t bothered submitting anything yet.
China Market Research Group’s Shaun Rein says Google has an attitude problem.
SHAUN REIN: Google really said to the government: do what we say or else.
Rein says Google has claimed to be the victim of Chinese censorship after it had agreed to allow the government to censor its search results five years ago when it created its Chinese site. Since then, Rein says Google has offered China little wiggle room with how the company operates within the country’s borders. Rein says Google’s behavior is about more than just Google. He says it’s turned Chinese officials against other websites like Facebook and Twitter, both of which are blocked in China.
REIN: If Google is not going to adhere to the rules they originally agreed to, then how can you trust anybody else?
And that’s why China has recently pushed for homegrown domestic players like Baidu to increase their market share.
In Shanghai, I’m Rob Schmitz, for Marketplace.
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