Well, the threat by Google that it may cease operations in China has certainly set tongues wagging in the east.
Google announced that it would cease censoring results of its Google.cn search engine, after what it says was a series of hacking attacks aimed at human rights activists.
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," wrote David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google.
Could this really mean the end of Google in China? And what does it all mean for the rest of Asia? And, in particular, what does it mean for travel?
To get a feel for what travel experts on the mainland think of the development, I made a few calls to contacts this evening. One had just returned from dinner where the hot topic of the evening was – you guessed it – Google and its future in China.
Said my contact who’s been working in the online travel space for several years, “By coincidence, China's No.1 search engine Baidu was hijacked by the Iran hacker yesterday morning of local time. Historically Baidu has been very popular among young Chinese netizens while many middle-class professionals still prefer to use Google as the prime search engine when they conduct job-related research or plan their vacations whether for domestic or overseas travel.”
Google's departure, he said, would have significant impact on some industry segments in China, like the already weakened export industries, who are increasingly relying on Google for overseas marketing.
“The impact will also be felt by major international OTAs and tourist destinations who are heavily relying on using SEO or paid key word search to market to Chinese consumers.
“For example, when you search "Book London hotel" in Chinese through Google, booking.com, Agoda and HRS.cn are among the top five natural search results. When you search for "Book Singapore hotels" in Chinese, Agoda and HRS.cn are also among the top 5. With Google's absence, the international companies need to learn how to play with Baidu's rules which is more like a business listing service.”
However sources say since the announcement, Google seems to have softened its stand.
One source said, “When I searched for pictures by using the key word of Tiananmen square in English around 3 pm this afternoon, it generated a lot of uncensored pictures. But at the time of 10 pm, all these sensitive pics had been filtered.”
“Personally I do not believe Google will pull out from China market which is too attractive for any international companies to ignore.
“But this fact reminds us that to succeed in China, multinational companies need to be very flexible with their marketing strategies and too much reliance on one marketing tool will put them in big risk. Twitter is blocked, Facebook is blocked and the same fate for Youtube and blogspot. Who will be the next?
“Without Google, the Chinese will still have a happy life. But it will stop the internet revolution in China.”
Another source said he seriously doubts if it will pull out. “Their sales team has been scrambling all day to ensure clients and publishers this is not happening.”
He said that in travel advertising, Google was a small player – 5% – behind Qunar (25% share) and Baidu (15-20% share).
“The last time a company threatened the Chinese government and won was Jardine Matheson around 1840. I'm not sure it will happen again.”
Well, the threat by Google that it may cease operations in China has certainly set tongues wagging in the east.
Google announced that it would cease censoring results of its Google.cn search engine, after what it says was a series of hacking attacks aimed at human rights activists.
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," wrote David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google.
Could this really mean the end of Google in China? And what does it all mean for the rest of Asia? And, in particular, what does it mean for travel?
To get a feel for what travel experts on the mainland think of the development, I made a few calls to contacts this evening.
One had just returned from dinner where the hot topic of the evening was – you guessed it – Google and its future in China.
Says my contact who’s been working in the online travel space for several years: “By coincidence, China's No.1 search engine Baidu was hijacked by the Iran hacker yesterday morning of local time. Historically Baidu has been very popular among young Chinese citizens while many middle-class professionals still prefer to use Google as the prime search engine when they conduct job-related research or plan their vacations, whether for domestic or overseas travel.”
Google's departure, he says, would have significant impact on some industry segments in China, like the already weakened export industries, who are increasingly relying on Google for overseas marketing.
“The impact will also be felt by major international OTAs and tourist destinations who are heavily relying on using SEO or paid key word search to market to Chinese consumers.
“For example, when you search 'Book London hotel' in Chinese through Google, Booking.com, Agoda and HRS.cn are among the top five natural search results. When you search for 'Book Singapore hotels' in Chinese, Agoda and HRS.cn are also among the top 5. With Google's absence, the international companies need to learn how to play with Baidu's rules which is more like a business listing service.”
However sources say since the announcement, Google seems to have softened its stand.
One source says: “When I searched for pictures by using the key word of Tiananmen square in English around 3pm this afternoon, it generated a lot of uncensored pictures. But by 10pm, all these sensitive pics had been filtered.”
“Personally I do not believe Google will pull out from China market which is too attractive for any international companies to ignore.
“But this fact reminds us that to succeed in China, multinational companies need to be very flexible with their marketing strategies and too much reliance on one marketing tool will put them in big risk. Twitter is blocked, Facebook is blocked and the same fate for Youtube and blogspot. Who will be the next?
“Without Google, the Chinese will still have a happy life. But it will stop the internet revolution in China.”
Another source said he seriously doubts if Google will pull out. “Their sales team has been scrambling all day to reassure clients and publishers this is not happening.”
He said that in travel advertising, Google was a small player – 5% – behind Qunar (25% share) and Baidu (15-20% share).
“The last time a company threatened the Chinese government and won was Jardine Matheson around 1840. I'm not sure it will happen again.”