Google vs. China Case Study Paper Example

China has over 600million internet users; its population is most connected in the world, yet for the totalitarian Chinese regime this unlimited access to data poses to its control of free expression. To counter its citizens access to alternate perspectives, it has established a challenging system of censorship to control the media content readily accessible for public consumption CITATION ORo07 \l 1033 (O'Rourke IV & O'Neil, 2007). When the internet first came out, China felt that it could be a brilliant thing, but then it was uncontainable, the power was shifted to the individual in many unprecedented ways. The communist leaders began building Chinas great firewall: a firewall of censorship. This golden shield signaled the end of thousands of domains in 1998. The only way Users could get through the blackout was with workarounds like secure VPNs and proxy servers, but those were clumsy and gradually unproductive against the powerful blockade CITATION Niu13 \l 1033 (Niu & Deng, 2013).

Today accessing any Google website in China is difficult, as well as other sites such as Facebook, Bing, Twitter, BlogSpot and word press. China employs over two million Chinese internet police officers. The officer blocks web content and monitors user activity. Academics have little or no access to scientific journals, business people have limited communications with associates around the world and Chinas leaders cannot be investigated. The country has adopted a more aggressive censorship called the great cannon. It launches dispersed denial of service attacks touching websites that assist its citizen internet users in getting through The Great Firewall CITATION Jin12 \l 1033 (Jin & Charles, 2012). The cannon allows China to interrupt web traffic from outside of China domains as it flows to China websites and hence, injects malicious code, and then redirect it back to specific traffic.

Google in China

Chinas domestic internet firm, Baidu, controls the market while Google struggles. Google first joined the market in 2000 when they established a Chinese language version of their homepage. Their original plan was to preserve Google with a Chinese version of Google that was to be hosted in the U.S but could manage search request that was coming from China. They intended to avoid China censorship rules since the facility was not within China borders and they did not require the authorization to run in China. In September 2002, their site was completely unreachable for two consecutive

weeks, and when it came back, it was seven times slower than that of Baidu. After realizing how fast they were losing their market share to Baidu in 2004, they started a yearlong study of the internet in China while consulting various stakeholders such as the government, non-governmental organizations, Chinese experts and business partners CITATION Yeo16 \l 1033 (Yeo, 2016). In 2006, Google founded Google.cn, which was situated in China and subject to censoring. The product was quicker and delivered better results in sensitive matters. The product was different from those of its rivals by; keeping all the personal data outside Chinese boundaries (i.e., Gmail), disclosing the general filtering to its users, and maintaining the Chinese version of google.com CITATION Sin10 \l 1033 (Singel, 2010).

Long-Term Strategy

For google.cn to have a successful entry and dominance in china market, long-term view and patience is a definite strategy that the management should incorporate. Most of the companies that have been successful in China have shown sincerity to build local operations run by local employees at first before they prioritize profit making. China requires a longer-term patience to first understand the peoples behaviors since they differ from the rest of the world such as the U.S and how the government operates it affairs CITATION Rus17 \l 1033 (Russell, 2017). Google should stop worrying about losing market share to its competitors and fix its product first and prioritize it to the Chinese market. When the product is good the market share will come later; this could be achieved by hiring local people and building their center in China and building a world-class team that creates products that are suitable locally. The center should be made up of Chinese people who understand the marketplace so that the products will be naturally locally compatible and appropriate.

Customizing Google

Their main aim should be to have the best Chinese search indisputably both in search quality and search experience. They should build a product that makes sense for the marketplace rather than making quick cash. Googles R&D center should be based on understanding the local market, create products that are suitable for the local market and then globalize those products for the rest of the world. More than 95% of search in China is in the Chinese language. Therefore it is vital to ensure that all local contents are matched very well. Developing a Chinese linguistic technology will help them improve Chinese search results due to the difficulties in the Chinese language. Chinese are more curious and spend more time on the search page hence providing more search results, and related results will attract more people who are searching with the goal of exploring.

Adapt Chinese Censorship

Chinese government censoring is not different from any form of censoring from another part of the world only that it is more intense. Since Google is a foreign company, it should abide by the government censorship laws. They should purge it search results of websites that are disapproved by the Chinese government. However, enduring to censor does not mean that they work with the government as Yahoo did. Just as they have two search engines, Google.com and Google.cn they should improve both products and make the products more unique than their competitors make (Thompson, 2006).

The act of state doctrine states that a country is independent within its borders, its internal actions may not be subject to questioning by another nations court CITATION USL18 \l 1033 (USLegal). Therefore googles move to not censor web content according to the Chinese government law is a violation of its rules. Regardless of the noble decision to stay true to their mission, Google is a multinational product that is aware of international laws. As an internet provider like any other international enterprise, Google has to put up with Chinese regulations and rules, like they do in other country. Google is subject to China's rules and regulations. Therefore, any violation of either will leave them in Chinese courts, and the U.S has to respect their ruling. The case of China and Google is a business case and therefore does not affect the ties between U.S and China.

The doctrine of Comity says that there must be mutual respect for the institutions, laws, and governments of other nations in the matters of authority over their people CITATION Lut \l 1033 (Luthans). Google is subject to comply with China's law and its authority over its citizen. They need not harm the interests of the country and those of its consumers to enjoy the benefits of China's evolving internet. Since the Google case is not an isolated case, all other local internet firms cooperate with the administration to curb online dissent and censor specific keywords, and they also share personal user data with government whenever they are requested to CITATION Hua16 \l 1033 (Huang & Horwitz, 2016). China citizens are aware of this move by the government, and therefore they are expected to abide by it. However, they can provide an alternative such as Google.com for those users who want their private information protected and their search results uncensored.

Globalization has had a dramatic impact on the organization structures. Theories, networks, and designs have emerged to meet the contemporary situations CITATION Lut11 \l 1033 (Luthans F. , 2011). Cisco helped China develop PoliceNet, they were known for building the great firewall of China and defended their action by maintaining that their service in China was just like any other. Yahoo was accused of availing vital info to china's government that led to the jailing of some journalist. While Microsoft removed a Chinese journalist blog from its MSN spaces site and continued, filtering search results from China. Yahoo and MSN do not have adequate leverage to pressure the Chinese government to change their regulations. Utilitarian theory is a normative ethical theory that emphasizes wrong or right solely on the outcomes of the action/policy chosen. In the cases of MSN and Yahoo, they were in a foreign land and were working under a signed agreement thus; they were obliged to collaborate with the Chinese government.

Deontology class of ethical theories states that individuals should stick to their duties when faced with a moral issue, this is because sticking to ones duty is what is seen as ethically right CITATION Cho14 \l 1033 (Chonko, 2014). Ciscos ethical problem was to turn down China request to build PoliceNet. However, they choose to stick to their duty and provided their services without considering the consequences.

To be successful in global markets one must be willing to risk feeling inauthentic and incompetent due to conflicting values and beliefs from different parts of the world. Every country has different rules of engagement. Learn all the local regulations and do not underestimate their impact regardless of the size of the business. These various practices can make the difference in deciding whether or not the market is viable. Secondly, localizing your product will ensure that it is well accepted in the local markets and can withstand competition. For instance, if Google stated right away by localizing their product to the Chinese market and gain a huge market share at first they probably would have a greater advantage while negotiating with the Chinese government. Lastly, be aware of your limitations. The United States of America is one of the most powerful countries in the world; however, that does not imply that it has the power to achieve whatever it seeks to. It faces financial constraints and has limits to what its allies are willing to support. These limitations can be cultural, geographical, historical or demographic. Therefore, before engaging into an international venture, one should be aware of the obstacles they cannot break.

Reference

BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Chonko, L. (2014). Ethical Theories. Ethical Theories, 3-5.

Huang, E., & Horwitz, J. (2016). Beijing said Facebook and Google are welcome back to China as long as they "respect China's laws." Quartz.

Jin, J., & Charles, A. (2012). Ethics, strategy and user relevance: The case of Google.cn (Response to Google vs. China's "Great Firewall": Ethical Implications for Free Speech and Sovereignty). Technology in Society, 182-184.

Luthans. (n.d.). Chapter 02 - The Political, Legal and Technological Environment. Solutions Manual International Management Culture Strategy Behavior, 1-11.

Luthans, F. (2011). Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach. New York, NY, 10020.: The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Niu, Y., & Deng, F. (2013). Market Entry Barriers in Chinas Industrial Markets. 1487-1497.

O'Rourke IV, J., & O'Neil, M. (2007). Google in China: government censorship and corporate reputation. Journal of Business Strategy, 12-22.

Russell, J. (2017, Dec 12). Google is opening a China-based research lab focused on artificial intelligence. Retrieved January 26, 2018, from Techcrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/12/google-opening-an-office-focused-on-artificial-intelligence-in-china/

Singel, R. (2010, February 3). Google's China Exit Strategy: Watch This Space. Retrieved January 26, 2018, from Wired Magazine...