Google Quits Censoring in China

Courtesy of Matt Elliot:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/22/google.china/index.html?hpt=T2

In response to the cyber attacks on Google originating from China in January 2010, Google has now officially stopped censoring searches in China. Instead, upon visiting Google.cn, you are now automatically directed to Google's Hong Kong search engine, which is NOT censored.

But how will this materially change Google's search business in China? According to the article, Google has only 13% of the search market in China, while a Chinese search engine that censors, Baidu, has 77% of the market. Even if Google's search engine is somehow completely blocked off from Chinese users in the future, it seems that the Chinese search market would still be adequately served by Google's China competitor, Baidu.

But it should be interesting to see how the Chinese government will respond to this. One speculator says: "China's next move may not be to just block access to Google but to go a step further: blocking all outside search engines from accessing Web information in China." Do you think they will go that far?

Also, YouTube, Google Sites and Google's Blogger apps have now been blocked in China.