Google is a shining example of how a major corporation should be. They are willing to take a moral stance against the Chinese government by no longer continuing to abide by their censorship rules; thus forgoing major profits by pulling out of the world’s most profitable internet market. This story is in contrast to their other business decisions such as selling their stocks at $2.75 billion dollars according to CNNmoney.com. The company is taking a risky gamble and it gets me thinking: how many other companies would be willing to pull out of China for business?
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has taken a stand against the Chinese government which could cost the company billions of dollars. China is the most densely populated country in the world making it a great place to market an idea; therefore, if Google pulls out, they will lose billions of dollars. If Google leaves China, then maybe another competitor such as the BIDU, China’s search engine, will take the money that Google is forgoing. Clearly, Google is not worried about making a profit and they do have ethical morals that are more important than money.
Redmondmag.com article about the attack on Google’s data system that was later identified as China and her terrible obsession of oppressing the censoring what their people are allowed to search on the internet. After these events, Schmidt declared “we discovered in the course of that, a perhaps related perhaps unrelated monitoring of human rights activists, which we disclosed, the spirit that people would be aware that this may be occurring. For those reasons and other reason, [we made] a secession for Google to no longer be willing to apply the censorship rules in China.” Though Google is pulling out of China, Schmidt said that Google would like to stay in China abiding to their laws but Google will be making changes within a short period of time. Schmidt has progressive ideas for the company with Chrome OS browser along with their new phone the Nexus One. Eric Schmidt proclaims that, "We have quite a healthy enterprise business that's going to grow quite rapidly over the next few years as people move from the older legacy PC-centric, traditional operating system model, to the new Web-based application model, and the trend there is everyone is moving there and we are going to be one of the leaders there.”
So what? Why does this story matter? I find this story fascinating because most people view big money-making companies as “evil” and here is probably one of the biggest companies saying that they will lose billions of dollars because of their belief in human rights. Google is a paragon of how a big corporation should be. I find it incredible that Google will take this HUGE economic hit because of their moral stance. As mentioned above, Google’s stocks are worth A LOT of money but not to worry; Google did just come out with Chrome (which is AWESOME) and now their new Nexus One which is sure to be a hit! I believe that Google be okay though they lose most of their business with China because people will think, “Wow, Google is willing to stand for what they believe is right and not do as much business with China” and as a result, Google will gain more supporters. Now, is Google doing this on purpose just so they can be the valiant knight who is holding fast to human rights and is willing to go through whatever endeavors to succeed? – or, is the BIDU controlling most of the market so Google does not see the need to stay? I am a skeptic so these kinds of thoughts always rush through my head. However, Google’s ideology seems to be pure in that they are truly doing this because they feel as if censoring the searches in China is wrong. Props to Google!
Sarah Struble (aka P.Y.T.)
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2010/01/22/google-ceo-defends-stance-on-china.aspx
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/22/technology/Google_founders_stock_sale/
so we know chivalry is not dead and apparently we can deduce that there are still inklings of morality and ethical values still surviving out there in the big bad world. lesson to be learned here: communism is bad mmmmkay!
ReplyDeleteI don't know...Google still gives me a bad vibe...like I feel there may be some ulterior motive. Like perhaps this huge PR move will be the bigger benefit to them because they will gain support, and China will end up crawling back (a win-win).
ReplyDeleteI think you and Steve Norris are right to ask the questions you ask. Whenever we consider the actions of commercial corporations, I think it's wise to think that their decisions are a mix of self-interest and social responsibility. While I might stop short of saying that I think big corporations are "evil," I do think that far to many of them make decisions that are HEAVILY skewed toward self-interest. Google has always talked differently, and their decision to operate in China in the first place--following the government's authoritarian laws--earned them a great deal of criticism. Their decision to pull out unless Chinese authorities change their policies seems like a complicated mix of PR, integrity, and shrewd profit-making savvy.
ReplyDeleteAnother question is how much impact Google's bold announcement will make in the long run, after the hype has died down.