By M H AHSAN
Google Inc, the world’s most powerful search engine will realise its dream of getting a direct and deeper access to the Chinese internet market. The web services provider has got the licence to operate in China, the world’s second largest internet market, only after the US. Google is planning to launch its China office by this year-end.
Google has also started operations on www.google.com.cn. Although it has been operating a Chinese language search engine from September 2000, it had previously been forced to run its China business from Hong Kong, thus limiting its operations to marketing advertising services via its search engine to Mainland Chinese companies.
The US-based Google has already bought an undisclosed stake in Chinese No. 1 search engine, Baidu.com. The deal brought Google much closer to the Chinese internet surfers who number almost 9.4 million. The figure is expected to touch 134 million by the end of 2005.
Google also brings with it the prediction of a tough competition against American rivals like Yahoo Inc, which has 22.7% share in Chinese market against Google’s 21.2%, and MSN. Baidu.com is the Chinese favourite with 36.3% share. Armed with the licence and stake, Google hopes to tap the rapidly growing market in China. At the same time, it faces challenges in the form of censorship and stringent regulations in the Communist-run country. Information related to politics, moral subjects and pornography are blocked in China and a few years ago Google was blacked out for unknown reasons.
Though ruled out by Baidu.com, a complete takeover of the Chinese company by the Californian giant is doing the rounds. This will set revolutionary changes in the market as well as web-based policies of China. Google’s direct presence can also establish a positive bearing on the English-speaking abilities of Chinese, who fare very badly in this area. Its varied range and technological supremacy will offer comprehensive coverage of Chinese sites, setting new standards in access to information in the otherwise media-conservative China.
Google also plans to make inroads into the Chinese domain and culture by making use of Baidu.com as its representative since Baidu has a superior understanding of them. Baidu.com is also preparing to get listed on NASDAQ and some other Chinese search engines are planning a technological revamp.
All these developments indirectly owing to the entry of Google and Yahoo are changing China’s internet habits and market besides giving hints about more flexible government policies. China is already making a name for itself in software sector and exposure to Western search engines will tremendously improve Chinese’s skills. Its businesses can also be marketed worldwide thus competing with India that has English-language advantage.
On the flip side, there is a strong feeling that the American intrusion would affect changes in the conservative and orthodox culture of the country, which is already witnessing a change in the general lifestyle.
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