AfterDawn: News

FT: Google is '99.9 percent' sure to shut down China search site

According to the Financial Times, Google Inc. is "99.9 percent" sure to shut down its Chinese search engine. The newspaper cited a source familiar with the situation in reporting that talks between Google and the Chinese government over censorship have reached an apparent impasse.

The report said that Google is likely to make a decision very soon but that it will take some time to follow through on its plans. The company would carry out an orderly closure to take steps to protect local employees from retaliation by authorities.



On Friday, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, warned Google about its decision to stop censoring search results for Chinese users. "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you," he told reporters.

Google shocked the business world and ignited tension between the United States and China in January when it revealed that it would pull out of China if it would not offer unfiltered search results. The move came after Google was targeted by a cyber-attack sourced in China aimed at its Intellectual Property and the e-mail accounts of Chinese activists.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 14 Mar 2010 20:21

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• 7 comments

• xaeroak15

  Nothing with gmail?God bless...

  14.3.2010 21:18 #1

• bam431

  Is Google gonna start WWIII....

  14.3.2010 22:18 #2

• llongtheD

  I'm surprised considering the size of the Chinese market. That's a lot of market share that Ding (bing), and yahoo will be trying to pick up. Of course there is that pesky .1% chance that they stay.

  14.3.2010 22:30 #3

• WierdName

  That's what you get when you expect an American company to provide service in your country then tell it to shove it when they want to provide full, unfiltered service.

  14.3.2010 22:35 #4

• joepet200

  Can this be? A large US corporate company with "principals"?
  If they pull out of China because of Censorship and Human Rights, I'm dropping Yahoo and getting a Gmail account and anything else that will have a Google stamp on it. They will need our support.

  14.3.2010 22:38 #5

• llongtheD

  Originally posted by joepet200: Can this be? A large US corporate company with "principals"?
  If they pull out of China because of Censorship and Human Rights, I'm dropping Yahoo and getting a Gmail account and anything else that will have a Google stamp on it. They will need our support.That's what I was thinking, but I also want to see how the company behaves since the founders no longer have the controlling shares. You just know this will be "spun" to make them money.

  14.3.2010 22:47 #6

• KSib

  Pull out of China. You're providing a service that's free to them and they don't like it. You obviously don't have to deal with it. Make em use Bing or Ask.com.
  

  15.3.2010 01:30 #7