Tech silence in China

 

 

Referring to 'Chinese page expires for Google (TSI, April 5-18). From the day Google entered China, its biggest foe in the Chinese search market has been Baidu. The latter presently holds a whopping 77 per cent of the local market share. Google thought it could beat the odds, but it simply could not adjust to Chinese tastes. It's debatable whether the overall Chinese set-up gives Baidu an edge. But Baidu operations are subject to the same Chinese government regulations as Google. The bottom line is, all things equal, Google could not compete with its Chinese rival. And the same holds true for the other US IT companies who are making a beeline to exit China. This does not mean that censorship of the Internet in China is not an issue. The Great Firewall programme that filters content for Chinese Internet users is both excessive and politically motivated. It might seem profitable to do business with no-fuss authoritarian regimes but in the long run it pays to go through bureaucratic maze of a democratic system, even if it's little cumbersome.

P. Arihanth

Hyderabad