Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, has threatened to pull out operations in China citing massive cyber attacks on its computers and China’s efforts to ‘limit free speech on the web.’ The move, if pursued, would be a highly odd reprimand of China by one of the biggest technology companies, according to industry observers. Google has reportedly coveted China’s over 300 million web users for years now.
The company had launched Google.cn in January 2006 under an agreement with the government that purged its Chinese search results of banned topics. Since then, the company has come under fire for supporting a system that increasingly restricts what citizens can read online.
The cyberattacks, which took place last week, were directed at some 34 companies or entities, most of them in Silicon Valley, California. It is suspected that the attackers may have succeeded in breaking through elaborate computer security systems and obtaining crucial corporate data and software source codes. Google has, however, confirmed that it did not suffer losses of that kind.
The scope of the hacking and the reason and identities of the hackers remained uncertain. However, Google’s reaction amounted to an unambiguous repudiation of its own five-year courtship of the Chinese market, which major multinational companies consider key to their growth prospects. The company has said it would cease to run google.cn and would consider shutting its offices in China, if a new arrangement to provide uncensored results on its search site does not come through. The Google office in China employs some 700 people - many of them highly compensated software engineers - and has an estimated $300 million in annual revenue.
While Google’s business in China is currently small, it is estimated that the country could soon become one of the most lucrative Internet and mobile markets. A withdrawal could significantly reduce the company’s long-term growth.
Google has faced increasingly restrictions from the Chinese government over the past one year. In June 2009, the government forced the company to stop a function that lets the search engine suggest terms. The government had earlier blocked nationwide access to its main search engine and other services like Gmail.
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