Had to post this…..its amazing……will Google really leave China  ?  The news I’ve been reading it is highly unlikely.  But the news loves hearing about the battle between Chinese government and Google.  Almost wondering - is it a PR stunt to get attention to Google from China?  Or is it a USA political match to twist Chinese officials to open the GFW (great firewall)

Interesting article below.

• Losing Google? Chinese Scientists Say It’s Like Going Blind, Life Without Electricity
  Chinese scientists say their research will be dramatically compromised if Google shuts down its search engine in China. One scientist says it would be like going blind: “If I lose Google, it will [be] just like a man without his eyes.” Another says it “would be like life without electricity.” Those quotes and several statistics showing [...]

Google has just released google buzz, a twitter like platform that is integrated into your gmail account - so your “buzz” from friends and followers comes through as a folder in your email box.
This is all cool stuff, but from the matter of the current state of “google leaving china”….this is another step towards leaving.
Its reported the government of iran has blocked not just this google buzz - but all access to gmail!!
As most people are learning, facebook, twitter, youtube and other social media sites are blocked inside of china - google buzz fits the profile of these social media sites, and therefore we speculate will also be banned by the GFW (great firewall) of china - as it allows chinese people to read and access information the chinese government forbids.
But the scary part is - if china blocks the new google buzz - it will also have to block gmail - google’s free email service!!!! This is because google has integrated the 2 systems together as 1 platform.
BLOCK gmail????? Would the chinese government do this? So many chinese people, and businesses, use it every day!
it is obvious google knows how many chinese people are using its gmail email service….and i cant help to think they may be using this gmail / buzz combo to make a difficult choice for the chinese government….
If the chinese government bans gmail, many of its people will be punished and at a competitive disadvantage from foreign companies…..as well as locked out of their email……..or defy chinese law and use tools to get around the chinese firewall.
I feel the younger generation in china is already fed up with the government here blocking facebook, youtube, twitter, and others.
How would the people react if they were banned from gmail?
Seems google was aware of this difficult choice the chinese government had to make, and is again challenging the chinese politicians to rethink how they resteict open access to information to their own people.
Google leaving china, google fighting the chinese government, now it seems google is pitting the chinese government against its own people…
Lets see the outcome….definitely going to be interesting…..

I feel that Google has lost its attempt to “change the Chinese government” and is still trying to remain in China. Wow, they really scared me a couple weeks ago - but even if they pull out of China, now they say only pull out selectively - keeping some research and development here , as well as advertising sales.

Reading Search Engine Land - it reports after Google’s earnings report on Wall street, that Eric Schmidt is “backtracking” with their prior stance on Google not putting up with the Chinese government’s censoring rules.

Another part, maybe also behind this, is the google inventors, Sergey Brin and Larry Page To Sell Of $2.79 Billion in Shares. They still own a heck of a lot of shares, but now they need Eric’s vote to get over 50% of the voting power of the company.

Anyway, all this news makes the world realize, you can’t just forget how important the growing Chinese internet is. There are just too many eyeballs at stake……literally.

Sales and Research (R&D) in China….interesting thought…..

This is a great example of how you need to have guan xi (good relations) in China.  Even in the digital age, its important to have strong relations with government agencies and high power internet companies here in China…let me show here below. (breath in….)

Man….how annoying…..after some talking in beijing to internet companies, i have been wondering why my rank for my chinese website 98products.com has dropped in baidu.com search engine (the biggest search engine in china, about 75% of chinese people use it)
Baidu has been calling my office lately asking why we haven’t added money to their paid advertising program (similar to google adwords), and say if we do not pay they will remove our account.
What is this??? If i dont pay money for your advertisements, then you will delete my website from the account??? So then chinese people looking for the products or services i provide, then I will have to re-create a Baidu account.
So i asked some big professionals here in beijing, they say, yup, this would be unheard of in the united states…but is a reality for baidu and china here…
They recommend to simply start over with a new domain account when I am ready to advertise…
Or pay baidu the money they ask for….

Unbelievable…
And there isnt anyone i can talk to…
And you know what is stupid, on the new domain website, i can never signup for a paid account, or if i do, i have to continue to pay baidu indefinitely, else they will remove me again…
so, if you start paying, you had better keep doing it……because once you start……
Comparing this to google, there is absolutely no connection with their paid (or sponsored) advertising program and their normal (organic) search results….
It just sucks that baidu had to play games like this….and its sad…
Sad because i am so often asked whats the differences between google and baidu….do i mention this in my answer…..????
Its just not fair to hard working chinese internet professionals….
i mean chinese government, so scared, they have to control information and manipulate search results…..why cant you play fair…it is embarrassing to the up and coming next generation of chinese professionals….
Times are changing….and hopefully baidu changes for the better too……
As i think its great to have a competitor to google, its market share is too big - but in thid case i have to route for google to continue to grow in the chinese market…..
And the other sad thing is, i can notice google.com search queries slow to respond or get a page not found error…and while i cannot confirm it, makes you think government is interrupting the service ….to swing people away from using it….
Facebook and twitter and others are blocked in china….imagine google.com
Then…there would be google.cn (g.cn)…..but…those results are monitored and filtered in china as well….but at least better than baidu
There….goes my complaining and whining….hope this blog doesnt get banned in china now for this….or punished by baidu and banned.

Again, I think in China, its normal to say you need to have special relations with governments and large cooperations to succeed. But with today’s internet age, it challenges the exact idea….allowing small companies and startups to grow quickly….Seems china traditions aren’t letting up.

Well, I am gonna rant a little bit, a bit of a short post, but hoping to get some comments and feedback.

Maybe its not China wanting to unwelcome foreigners…but by the government controlling what is said, and how you can say it, it doesnt give foreigners that warm and fuzzing feeling inside.

I guess while I am upset about this, it makes me understand the frustrations of the chinese people. They are supressed on what news and information that comes from the outside world. Of course, the younger and new generation is much more open and aware of the outside world and what is going on, but there are clear differences generation to generation.

Just wonder. I know a few of my foreign friends in china already seriously considering moving out due to this higher then usual regulation of information

HOW CAN I RUN AN INTERNET MARKETING COMPANY IF I CANNOT FREELY ACCESS INFORMATION AND TOOLS…

:::::::::: sigh ::::::::::

I had a coffee break with my new friend Guang Yao (english name is Tristan), who is an avid social media guy, loving twitter, blogs, and other social online stuff. Here are some notes of what I got from our discussion this evening:

There is a coffee shop in Hangzhou city, China called “Beta Cafe” that is founded by some Alibaba Group execs. It has not spent any money on advertising, all of its customers come from word of mouth and SOCIAL MEDIA - blogs, social networks, etc - AND IS doing really well, as a token of chinese internet success and social networking.

We then talked about US internet, of course the google, ebay, amazon, twitter, and some other smaller sites. I’m not gonna bother writing about that, as this is an ENGLISH blog (haha) and you guys all know about this, and there’s tons of ENGLISH (amazing….) blogs talking about ENGLISH seo and internet marketing. Lets talk about these top chinese sites for those of you who don’t know:

I’m sure you may have heard, but if not, Alibaba Group is a major internet company in China, traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange (1688.hk. They own a portfolio of companies in ecommerce, listed below:

a) Alibaba International - this is the flagship site, which started as a bulliten board by Jack Ma in 1999 for manufacturers to post their products. It turned into a huge directory where factories and trading companies all over the world (well, mainly in China, but then again, theres most of the manufacturing these days) could promote their products to wholesalers, importers, and buyers.

b) Alibaba Domestic - in Chinese for chinese b2b transactions. Factories and Trading companies can sell to other chinese companies.

c) Tao Bao (www.taobao.com) - The Chinese ebay. Well, yea EBay tried to enter the chinese market a few years ago, and Tao Bao kicked its a$$! Tao Bao is free for both buyers and sellers though, so that may be a reason its such a dominent player. But Chinese love this site, and I would say is where 90% of chinese e-commerce is done. They also have an “amazon” fulfillment type system they’re working on, that will connect factories to buyers directly - with tao bao as the platform to “drop ship” direct to consumer (not taking on any inventory though)

d) Alipay - e-payment system. Basically the Chinese Paypal. 99% of the market share.

e) Alisoft - mainly a CRM system, it is cross promoted to its other channels in Alibaba and Tao Bao - and is how Alibaba attempts monetizes these other products, as they do not charge for usage on tao bao, nor do they charge much on alibaba china.

f) Alimama - an advertising platform, like google adwords and adsense. also another way it monetizes tao bao, with banner advertisements and the like.

Next we have Baidu , which is traded on the US NasDaq stock market (BIDU) is the dominant search engine in China, with approximately 75% market share of the search market here. Google China is trying to penetrate the market with maybe the 25% remaining market share, but Baidu still seems to dominate by a wide margin. They have the same business model as Google, selling sponsored advertisements, except they also have some advertisement IN THE ORGANIC results, not just on the left and the top. In addition to their flagship search engine, they also have:

payment system, shopping portal, and a new instant messaging tool. But there clear moneymaker is the baidu search engine.

Tencent, or more commonly known as QQ is a hugely successful Instant Messaging (IM) platform started and still based in the same city I live in now, Shenzhen. A private company (from as far as I can tell) this company makes the most profit of the 3, almost printing money.

Instant Messaging - A IM system like skype or MSN, with voice and video chat like those, But one cool feature I like is YOU’RE NAKED. Yea, you have a virtual “you” that is either a girl or a boy. You can then BUY clothing for your virtual person, picking shirts, pants, shoes, and accessories.

ONLINE GAMES make up 30% of its revenue, as the Chinese market loves to play online games, and Tencent’s games are really popular.

Pai Pai - C2C shopping site, a pretty much copy of tao bao.

Ten Pay - another alipay / paypal e-payment solution.

Other sites in china are more media (yahoo news) sites, that are also emerging with more products:
Sina.com
Sohu.com
163.com

What really amazes me, and was pointed out by the others tonight, is THEY ALL COPY EACH OTHER. And everyone has a product for every major internet function, payment, shopping, chat, etc. We discussed how its harder to copy in the USA because of trademarks and copyrights. But its sad to see in China. My friends tonight are almost afraid to share their ideas. here is why

THERE ARE REPRESENTATIVES From these above MAJOR Chinese internet companies building 100s of products in their R&D departments. they will attend events, work in social media sites, and then report back to their companies the ideas - AND COPY THEM.

So how can a young entrepreneur start his internet company? his ideas are stolen before he can even develop them…by huge multimillion dollar companies. Its sad. Its amazing, and it makes you wonder how innovation can continue.