January 20th, 2010 | Written by: kyle
Google China, the Chinese branch of the U.S. technology giant, is now allowing uncensored searches in China for the first time. This is creating a massive curiosity within China’s population, which is now taking full advantage of this brief internet freedom. The search engine rush is mostly fueled by the belief that there will be a crackdown on Google and the search engine’s stance against censorship might even result in Google leaving China completely if there are no renewed negotiations for Google China. This scenario could result in several different outcomes for Google China.
Within the world of search engine optimization (SEO), Google plays a huge role in expanding search results. In the last year, Google had 65.7% of all searches within the U.S. However, Google China has not succeeded in dominating the search-engine market as it has in the rest of the world. In the last quarter of 2009, China’s search market was dominated by Baidu, a China based engine, taking 63.9% of search. Google China secured 31.3% of the market, according to research firm Analysys International.
Analysts have also said less than 2 percent of Google’s revenue comes from China.
The Chinese online market is the fastest growing market in the world. There are currently close to 210,000,000 internet users in China with a growth rate of about 833% since 2000.
Google China Causes a Stir
The uncensoring of the internet has allowed the Chinese public to indulge on many previously banned searches, from anything ranging in politics to pornography. Some examples of previously banned search results in China are: “Tiananmen Square”, “the love affairs of national leaders”, “the corruption of leaders’ children” and many more. The famous Tiananmen Square protest is among the top banned searches that the Chinese are taking full advantage of with the veil of censorship lifted. Results include videos and articles documenting the human rights abuse conducted by the People’s Liberation Army against protestors in 1989. This could definitely cause some issues for Google China.
Surge in Search
The newly revised Google China search engine will definitely have an effect on global search volumes of keywords that the Chinese are typically banned from. The Google global search volume is bound to rise for keywords pertaining to forbidden Chinese interests, including Tiananmen Square or anything political and critical of the Chinese government, and these figures will increase immediately. This surge in search could easily throw off future keyword research and targeting efforts for Internationally-based sites and search engine optimization specialists.
Living in China, to outsiders, may be seen as living in a bubble because of the government’s attempt to regulate any information coming into China from foreign companies. The realization of the Chinese people that Google China has temporarily lifted its internet regulation has created frenzy, and a new sense of freedom to research previously unavailable information. However, not everyone in China sees this situation as positive, especially in China where criticism of the U.S. is at an all time high. There is also an expectation of the Chinese people that Google China will be forced to leave the country.
So What’s Next?
There are many possibilities for Google China at this point. The first possibility is to negotiate some kind of cooperation between Google’s belief of an open internet and China’s strict censorship laws. However, this is not likely due to the recent open defiance of Chinese law. The second possibility is that there is no successful negotiation and that Google China decides to completely pull out, which Google has already stated that it would. This is more likely than China banning Google, but both are very possible. This leaves a lot of speculation into what other company will fill Google’s shoes.
The second U.S. technology giant, Yahoo!, might be next to follow Google in its stance against Chinese internet censorship. In the U.S., Yahoo! is second in the search market, with around 17% of total searches, but in China, Yahoo! comes in third behind Baidu and Google. Trailing behind in fourth is Microsoft’s Bing. It is highly unlikely that if Google China pulls out, Yahoo! will stay, due to the fact that Yahoo! has recently announced it has aligned itself with the moral values of Google. (Not to mention the expiration date on Yahoo! owning its own search platform.) This leaves Microsoft’s Bing as the sole remainder of American presence within China for search engines.
Tags: Baidu, Chinese censorship, Google China, search engines in China, Yahoo
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Blog, Search Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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