Googling in China: An outstanding decision
A lot has been written about the implications of Google’s decision to stop censoring search in China. After Google announced that it was ceasing self-censorship of search queries, Chinese officials immediately denounced them as “totally wrong,” and immediately imposed their own content controls on the company’s search results.
Right off the bat, I think we have to applaud Google for making the courageous decision that they have. I’m not sure if there is any other corporation out there that could have executed such a thoughtful, precise and ultimately moral action, the way Google has.
What the world’s leading search engine has done for itself from a marketing perspective is not insignificant. They are now seen as a company with courage and principle, achieving incredible brand equity and international trust along the way.
Choosing to walk away from the the largest and fastest growing internet market in the world, in Google’s business, takes balls.
From a raw corporate strategy perspective, this decision may be a disaster. Poisoning the well with the Chinese government is not good for business if you want access to all of the internet users and mobile phones that are growing every day over there. Google has chosen to embarrass the Chinese Politburo in a very public manner, and the fallout from their actions have yet to be seen.
But Google is a bit different, I think, when it comes to corporate decision making. Before going public, they said that they were not a normal company and that they did not intend to be. Cheers, guys.
Clearly, people like Sergey Brin have significant moral problems about serving as an enabler to Chinese government censorship, an ethic that I share. Google has decided that that is is not willing to cooperate with a regime that selectively controls information, a policy that in intractable with Google’s core mission to be the most effective intermediary between all information on the internet and all people, regardless of whatever that information may be.
It is a bold decision, one that sets a strong example for other large multinationals operating in China.
The results are twofold, and only benefit Google. Google pulls far ahead of the pack in terms of burnishing its reputation as a strong corporate citizen that is indeed living up to its slogan, “don’t be evil.” Secondly, the Chinese government is embarrassed at such a high profile dust-up over its censorship policy. The average Chinese person on the street might be wondering, “Why is it absolutely crucial that search terms be controlled?”
