Chinese Google users were rerouted to the American Internet goliath’s Hong Kong search engine on Monday with the message "Welcome to the new home of Google search in China."
Google was told their search engine could no longer operate in China should they make the decision to feature results uncensored by the Chinese government.
As a response, Google boldly redirected traffic to their Hong Kong site, which is not subject to the same regulations as google.cn. The same services will be offered to Chinese users as before, only now, they will not be subject to censorship.
Google is also aiming to maintain a sales team, research-and-development operations and establish itself part of the pie in Chinese mobile phone sales.
To move in this direction, the new Hong Kong site features a the same characters as featured on the mainland site. Additionally the company did not forfeit several of its partnerships and features like music downloads and links to online forums.
Also helping to bolster profits, Google can rely on the Chinese advertisers who support the American google site with their ad dollars. Roughly 40 percent of Google ad revenue in China stems from the U.S. site.
This move may affect Google relations more dramatically than previously assumed. Though the rerouting is legal in their contract with China on a technical basis, it appears as though the government has already put a stop to the unfiltered results. Early on Tuesday, web searches for censored materials showed at least a glimpse of results but by the end of the day, an error message appeared to users.
About EQUITIES:
Since 1951, EQUITIES Magazine has been a leading media company providing business editorial content designed to serve the needs of business leaders, professionals, institutional investors and retail investors. We are focused on business and the business of making money, not on lifestyle subjects. We publish original reporting in print and on our website, as well as select content at www.nasdaq.com. For 28 years we have hosted our own branded investor conferences that connect public company CEO’s with our loyal readers in the investment community.
Sign up for a free one-year subscription
