So Google makes the news this week for two reasons: one, its pullout of China (it has shut down its mainland portal and diverted searches to its uncensored Hong Kong-based site) and two, that it is going into travel meta-search.
Both developments are not that unexpected. It hasn’t been a happy relationship between Google and China, politically and economically.
Yes, there’s the censorship issue that Google is taking exception to – but it did accept and lived with the Chinese rules for a long time, when it suited it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google founder Sergey Brin says the decision was partly motivated by his own memories of repression in the Soviet Union.
He says that China's web censorship and suppression of dissidents reminded him of the "totalitarianism" of his youth.
“In some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling,” he says.
Business-wise, it’s a fact that similar to the internet giants that went before it (eBay and Yahoo) Google has found it hard to gain traction in China against the market leader Baidu.
But there is no doubt that its partial departure (as described by some) could impact all sorts of publishers and websites that rely upon search for obtaining customers, says Fritz Demopoulos, chief executive of Chinese travel search site, Qunar.
"With one less acquisition channel, Baidu would have more bargaining power - i.e. TAC would increase," he says.
"On the other hand, for companies selling contextual advertising, Qunar, other MSEs across all sorts of verticals not just travel, [they] would have more opportunities to sell."
For online travel specifically, Demopoulos says Google's share in China was probably at a marginal 4-5% compared to 15-20% for Baidu.
“In other words, Google didn't have much scale within china's travel space, and as such, their partial departure probably won't have a big impact.”
The impact, I reckon, will be more social. When I was in China recently, I asked a few young Chinese how they would feel if they wouldn’t be able to access “Gu Ge” and most of them shrugged. The Chinese are, at best, a pragmatic people and I suspect that most know their way round the system.
One though says that if he were not able to access Google, Facebook or YouTube, “I think our life would not be so quick, convenient and interesting”.
“Our work will be more unpleasant and burdensome. Moreover, the weekends will be as dry as dust. It’s terrible.”
He is right. As international travellers, we are used to logging onto our Facebook anytime, anywhere to post pictures or updates or to YouTube to post our videos so it’s a bit strange when you find yourself unable to do so when you are travelling in China. Yes, social media has become a rite of travel, in my book.
On my recent trip to Haikou, I kept forgetting I was in China and tried logging onto Facebook or YouTube and even Vimeo and failed everytime. At first I thought it was the slow net access, but then I was told some of these sites are blocked.
This week, someone who was travelling in China pinged me to say he felt rather lonely because he couldn’t get onto Facebook.
This, I think, is not very friendly or welcoming behaviour for a country that’s due to welcome more travellers than anywhere else in the world by 2015.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), China, now the world’s fourth largest destination for incoming tourists, will rise to the top spot by then, knocking France with its current 80 million per year off its perch.
So for the sake of hospitality in this new digital age, I think China should lighten up a little bit.
As for Google’s entry into travel meta-search and its implications for companies in this space, well, the move’s been tipped for so long that I am sure no one, least of all Steve Hafner of Kayak or Martin Symes of Wego are saying “OMG, we are dead!”
Others can give better analysis than I on what this could mean to the travel meta-search space. (For example, read this Tnooz post by Kevin May)
There’s one thing I do know though – the search space was getting stale and dull. Some were already condemning it to an early grave. Social media became the new sexy and was hogging all the attention.
Well, search just got sexy again. Perhaps this could give rise to all sorts of mergers and acquisitions possibilities but then again, perhaps not…
Gu Ge, we media people love you.
So Google makes the news for two reasons: its pull-out of China (it has shut down its mainland portal and diverted searches to its uncensored Hong Kong-based site) and moving into travel metasearch.
Both developments are not that unexpected. It hasn’t been a happy relationship between Google and China, politically and economically.
Yes, there’s the censorship issue that Google is taking exception to – but it did accept and lived with the Chinese rules for a long time, when it suited it.
According to the Wall Street Journal [reg required], Google founder Sergey Brin says the decision was partly motivated by his own memories of repression in the Soviet Union.
He says that China's web censorship and suppression of dissidents reminded him of the "totalitarianism" of his youth.
“In some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling,” he says.
Business-wise, it’s a fact that similar to the internet giants that went before it (eBay and Yahoo) Google has found it hard to gain traction in China against the market leader Baidu.
But there is no doubt that its partial departure (as described by some) could impact all sorts of publishers and websites that rely upon search for obtaining customers, says Fritz Demopoulos, chief executive of Chinese travel search site, Qunar.
"With one less acquisition channel, Baidu would have more bargaining power - i.e. TAC would increase," he says.
"On the other hand, for companies selling contextual advertising, Qunar, other MSEs across all sorts of verticals not just travel, [they] would have more opportunities to sell."
For online travel specifically, Demopoulos says Google's share in China was probably at a marginal 4-5% compared to 15-20% for Baidu.
“In other words, Google didn't have much scale within china's travel space, and as such, their partial departure probably won't have a big impact.”
The impact, I reckon, will be more social. When I was in China recently, I asked a few young Chinese how they would feel if they wouldn’t be able to access “Gu Ge” and most of them shrugged. The Chinese are, at best, a pragmatic people and I suspect that most know their way round the system.
One though says that if he were not able to access Google, Facebook or YouTube, “I think our life would not be so quick, convenient and interesting”.
“Our work will be more unpleasant and burdensome. Moreover, the weekends will be as dry as dust. It’s terrible.”
He is right. As international travellers, we are used to logging onto our Facebook anytime, anywhere to post pictures or updates or to YouTube to post our videos so it’s a bit strange when you find yourself unable to do so when you are travelling in China. Yes, social media has become a rite of travel, in my book.
On my recent trip to Haikou, I kept forgetting I was in China and tried logging onto Facebook or YouTube - even Vimeo - and failed every time. At first I thought it was the slow net access, but then I was told simply that these sites are blocked.
This week, someone who was travelling in China even pinged me to say he felt rather lonely because he couldn’t get onto Facebook.
This, I think, is not very friendly or welcoming behaviour for a country that’s due to welcome more travellers than anywhere else in the world by 2015.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), China, now the world’s fourth largest destination for incoming tourists, will rise to the top spot by then, knocking France with its current 80 million per year off its perch.
So for the sake of hospitality in this new digital age, I think China should lighten up a little bit.
As for Google’s entry into travel metasearch and its implications for companies in this space, well, the move’s been tipped for so long that I am sure no one, least of all Steve Hafner of Kayak or Martin Symes of Wego are saying: “OMG, we are dead!”
There’s one thing I do know though – the search space was getting stale and dull. Some were already condemning it to an early grave. Social media became the new sexy and was hogging all the attention.
Well, search just got sexy again, as a result of Google's stance in China and its foray into new areas. Perhaps this could give rise to all sorts of mergers and acquisitions, but then again, maybe not.
It has, let's face it, been rather difficult to second-guess the precise timing of Google's moves over the years.
But in the meantime, Gu Ge, we media people love you.