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Google in China



The internet search engine giant Google, has been in a fiercely contested censorship battle with the Chinese governments over the content, security and privacy of the Google search engine. In 2005 Google was officially launched in China under the leadership of Kai-Fu Lee, a leading microsoft executive. It endured for 4 years before the Chinese government blocked access to Google's youtube site and other services offerred by the internet giants such as their gmail service. Soon after the block of the Google services, Kai-Fu Lee breaks away from Google and goes to the rival Chinese search engine Baidu which is made in accordance with the Chinese censorship laws.


In march 2010, Google decided to redirect all internet traffic in the Chinese mainland through the Hong Kong servers. Hong Kong is a special administrive region in China and therefore its censorship rights tend to favour freedom of speech and expression more so than the traditional Chinese censorships laws.

There is speculations that the Chinese government originally blocked off the Google services and search parameters due to the content that the Google search engine encompasses. Intermet websites that contain pornographic material is banned in the country and since they are included within the Google search, the Chinese government felt that it was necessary to block the search engine from operating within the country. This controversy over the freedom of expression and the right to express any material has sparked a world wide debate on the censorship rights that a state has over its internet usage and control.

Google popularity in China has greatly decreased in the past few years and it no longer enjoys a majority of usage in the country. Baidu now controls over 63% of the internet share in the country, almost double the usage of Google, however analysts are sceptical of the future of the quality of search engine in the country, should Google pull out of the country it is expected that their will be a decline in the need for Baidu to be innovative and creative with their product and this will lead to a deteoration of the search engine.