It’s all in the news now – that Google is likely pulling out of China – or in essence if they won’t censor content anymore they will be blocked by China.  This is in the wake of what everyone believes if China hacking into Google searching for Chinese human right’s leaders information.  I wonder if this just ticked Google off and they had enough.  It’s a potential revenue loss for Google – but then again they’re whole model is free information which censorship really puts a kink into.

I wonder if this really will impact China – they seem to be an economic Juggernaut that can almost set it’s own terms.  That the rest of the world is willing to toe the line because of the money (drooling over a growing market).  Will China really be impacted without Google’s products?  It seems like the citizens of the country will toe the line – they don’t seem to be frustrated with the censorship.  Maybe they’re just happy with a new standard of living – which they may believe the government is helping them obtain.  It’s unlikely there will be a popular revolt over losing Google (but I could be wrong).

What I wonder if this will give a competitive advantage to other countries that can use the Google stack?  Will they be able to innovate at a faster rate than China?  Will there be efficiencies for those countries than China won’t have? Or does it not matter since China right now is about cheap labor – about having willing people to throw at the problem?

Or will China get Google – by stealing how Google and the cloud works.  Will China’s search engine company provide some of the same tools – albeit with government controls.  Or is that not really possible without Google’s people?  Intellectual Property is almost a different concept in China than in other parts of the world – it’s just not protected the same way.  It’s a risk for any company doing business in China that their technology will be wholesale lifted and sold out from under them.

Of course it’s possible Google may have more power here than we understand – if it wants to really take China to task.  Could it pressure the U.S. Government to act in some way?  Will they be able to pressure other companies in how they approach China?  Will Google start to implement some network controls to protect itself – and in effect wall China in?  Will Google sponsor some renegade networks in China – to allow for freedom on speech going around the government?

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