...at Duke Universit y Business Ethics GOOGLE IN CHINA “The Great Firewall” Prepared by Kristina Wilson, Yaneli Ramos, and Daniel Harvey under the supervision of Professor Wayne Norman (edited by Professor Chris MacDonald) In early 2006, search-engine giant Google struck a deal with the People’s Republic of China and launched Google.cn, a version of its search engine run by the company from within China. Launching Google.cn required Google to operate as an official Internet Service Provider (ISP) in China, a country whose Communist government requires all ISPs to selfcensor, removing content that is considered illegal from search results. From a financial perspective, China represented for Google a dynamic and fast-growing, though increasingly competitive, market. Google’s decision to self-censor Google.cn attracted significant ethical criticism at the time. The company’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” and prior to entering China, Google had successfully set itself apart from other technology giants, becoming a company trusted by millions of users to protect and store their personal information. The choice to accept self-censorship, and the discussion and debate generated by this choice, forced Google to re-examine itself as a company and forced the international community to reconsider the implications of censorship. This case was prepared as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation...
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...at Duke Universit y Business Ethics GOOGLE IN CHINA “The Great Firewall” Prepared by Kristina Wilson, Yaneli Ramos, and Daniel Harvey under the supervision of Professor Wayne Norman (edited by Professor Chris MacDonald) In early 2006, search-engine giant Google struck a deal with the People’s Republic of China and launched Google.cn, a version of its search engine run by the company from within China. Launching Google.cn required Google to operate as an official Internet Service Provider (ISP) in China, a country whose Communist government requires all ISPs to selfcensor, removing content that is considered illegal from search results. From a financial perspective, China represented for Google a dynamic and fast-growing, though increasingly competitive, market. Google’s decision to self-censor Google.cn attracted significant ethical criticism at the time. The company’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” and prior to entering China, Google had successfully set itself apart from other technology giants, becoming a company trusted by millions of users to protect and store their personal information. The choice to accept self-censorship, and the discussion and debate generated by this choice, forced Google to re-examine itself as a company and forced the international community to reconsider the implications of censorship. This case was prepared as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation...
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...Google, Inc., In China (Edited) Kristen E. Martin Tom MacLean finished watching the Senate hearing on C-Span and slumped in his chair. He had been with Google, Inc., as a director of International Business for only nine months, and it wasn’t going as well as he had hoped. The decision—to physically enter Chinese territory and, consequently, subject search results to Chinese filtering and monitoring— drew ire from non-governmental organizations academics, press and the general public, culminating in a congressional hearing. A search for Tiananmen Square on Google.com produces a list of web sites depicting the brutal suppression of demonstrators in China in June 1989. The same search on Google.cn provides a much smaller list and includes pictures of a smiling couple in the square. China’s Internet surveillance and filtering program requires the filtering of material determined to fall under one or more of the following categories: Banned categories of Internet materials 1. Violating the basic principles as they are confirmed in the Constitution 2. Jeopardizing the security of the nation, divulging state secrets, subverting state power, or jeopardizing the integrity of the nation’s unity 3. Harming the honor or the interests of the nation 4. Inciting hatred against peoples, racism against peoples, or disrupting the solidarity of peoples 5. Disrupting national policies on religion, propagating evil cults, and propagating feudal superstitions 6. Spreading rumors, compiling and promulgating...
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...31, 2011. In particular, US internet users grew from 4.5 million to 140 million (World). Two start-up companies attempting to capitalize on this new emerging market were Yahoo and Google, both founded and incorporated in the mid to late 1990s. Both companies realizing the potential of the internet as an unlimited database, started out specializing in search engines that help users locate information on the internet. This is reflected in their respective mission statements. Google’s mission statement is "To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Frequently). Yahoo’s mission statement is “Yahoo! is the premier digital media company. Yahoo! creates deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. That's how we deliver your world, your way. And Yahoo!'s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses” (Yahoo! Inc.). Due to the fact that both Google and Yahoo started out as search engines, there are striking similarities in their mission statements. First is that they both consider the internet a database with Yahoo explicitly stating that they are “the premier digital media company”. While Google implicitly states it with the phrase “organizing the...
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...available in China since the site’s inception in 1999, service was slow and unreliable due to extensive Chinese government censoring of international content. Google’s major U.S. competitors, Yahoo! and Microsoft MSN, had each entered the Chinese market as ISPs years earlier, agreeing to self-censor. In addition, escalating competition from Chinese search engine Baidu.com was quickly eroding Google. com’s Chinese market share: between 2002 and 2007, Baidu.com’s market share increased from a mere 3%1to a dominant 58%2 Also, during the same time there were cases of privacy breach in China by the companies which further made it difficult for Google to come to a decision. . In early 2006, just as Google was planning to launch Google.cn, it became known that Yahoo! China had turned over private user e-mail data to the Chinese government and that this had led to the ten-year, eight-year, and four-year prison sentences of Chinese cyber dissidents Shi Tao, Li Zhi, and Jiang Lijun. In addition, Microsoft had recently shut down the blog of famous Chinese political blogger Michael Anti (a penname for Zhao Jing) at the request of the Chinese government4. Clearly any decision made by Google to enter China would have to take into account concerns about user privacy and government surveillance The criticism: Google’s decision to self-censor Google.cn attracted significant ethical criticism at the time. The company’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” and prior to entering China, Google had successfully...
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...CASE: A-197 DATE: 02/05/09 BAIDU.COM, INC.: VALUATION AT IPO Since its official launch in January 2000, Baidu.com, Inc. (Baidu) quickly grew to become the leading Internet search engine in China. After three rounds of private funding, Baidu registered to go public on the NASDAQ Stock Market (Ticker Symbol: BIDU) on August 5, 2005. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for a listing of Baidu’s private funding sources and pre-IPO share allocations.) The initial public offering (IPO) turned out to be one of the highest-profile debuts since the Internet bubble burst in 2000. The stock price jumped 354 percent on the first day of trading and closed at $122.54, valuing the company at about $3.96 billion based on 32.3 million shares outstanding. While the market showed strong enthusiasm for the stock, Baidu’s public offering nevertheless generated much debate in the investment community about the underlying value of the firm. Furthermore, concerns were raised about whether or not Baidu was able to sustain its growth rate and exceed investor expectations after the IPO. Factors leading to this uncertainty included: the state of the Internet-paid search market in China, the expected growth in the marketplace, the competitive landscape, and the strength of Baidu’s business model and strategic position. BACKGROUND ON CHINA’S ADVERTISING AND ONLINE ADVERTISING MARKETS Advertising Market From 1995 to 2005 China’s advertising market grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent, which was...
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...rights violation in China and Google’s dilemma. Companies deal with ethical conflicts with China daily. Google Inc.’s struggled with ethical implications for doing business with China. The paper addresses the ethical problems that companies like Google, Inc. encountered that caused their decision to withdraw from China. The paper will show how Vietnam covered up corruption, freedom of speech, transparency, and supply chain ethical issues. Big companies continue to draw criticism for accommodating governments and compromise their ethical or moral standards. Companies have an enormous opportunity in China to make a bigger profit by doing business in China. The organization cannot assume that Chinese do business the same way Americans do. To do business in China a company has to follow government directives. Chinese want to do business with people they trust. Terms on contracts will not mean the same thing to them as they do to Americans. Chinese businesses do not feel they are bound to contracts. In America a company competes with 100’s of business but in China, you are competing with globally. Google Inc’s announce in Beijing their decision to withdraw from China after ethical implications of hacking into the privacy of Google’s users. Google had to limit the excess of information on the search engine in China. China does not hold to the same freedom of speech American do. Free speech advocates criticized Cisco Systems, inc. for selling equipment to China that blocks Web sites...
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...Google Company Analysis Paper Abstract In this paper, I perform business analysis for Google Inc, the leading internet search engine provider in the world. Google Inc., a technology company, maintains index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, Google network members, and other content providers. Its automated search technology helps users to obtain instant access to relevant information from its online index. The company provides targeted advertising and Internet search solutions, as well as hosted applications (Google profile, 2010). Mission, Goals & Objectives Google, the name of the company, reflects the immense volume of information that exists, and the scope of Google's mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful (Google’s corporation information, 2010). Google’s goals and objectives include the following: The company • Wants to have an improved infrastructure to make their engineers more productive. • Wants to be the best in search in the world. • Wants to push their ad system. • Wants to push their communities and content. • Tries to make sure their tools are running everywhere. • Google is always focusing on innovation (Google’s Internal Company Goals, 2010). Overall, Google wants to make the internet searching experience best for its customers and search results more accurate. Overview of the External...
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...CASE: A-197 DATE: 02/05/09 BAIDU.COM, INC.: VALUATION AT IPO Since its official launch in January 2000, Baidu.com, Inc. (Baidu) quickly grew to become the leading Internet search engine in China. After three rounds of private funding, Baidu registered to go public on the NASDAQ Stock Market (Ticker Symbol: BIDU) on August 5, 2005. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for a listing of Baidu’s private funding sources and pre-IPO share allocations.) The initial public offering (IPO) turned out to be one of the highest-profile debuts since the Internet bubble burst in 2000. The stock price jumped 354 percent on the first day of trading and closed at $122.54, valuing the company at about $3.96 billion based on 32.3 million shares outstanding. While the market showed strong enthusiasm for the stock, Baidu’s public offering nevertheless generated much debate in the investment community about the underlying value of the firm. Furthermore, concerns were raised about whether or not Baidu was able to sustain its growth rate and exceed investor expectations after the IPO. Factors leading to this uncertainty included: the state of the Internet-paid search market in China, the expected growth in the marketplace, the competitive landscape, and the strength of Baidu’s business model and strategic position. BACKGROUND ON CHINA’S ADVERTISING AND ONLINE ADVERTISING MARKETS Advertising Market From 1995 to 2005 China’s advertising market grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17...
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...Google PESTLE Analysis Political Installation of sophisticated router switches blocked information flowing in and out of China A blacklist of banned IP addresses and URLs featuring news about politically and culturally sensitive topics was given to the operators by the Government and wanted operators to block them. All providers in china had to provide the customer’s account numbers, phone numbers and IP addresses to the Government The providers were asked to track the websites the users accessed under the policy of Public Pledge of Self –regulation and Professional ethics. Internet cafes were asked to install software that blocked sensitive content and the patrons who visited these sites had to present their identification under their real name. Chinese Government launched a$800 million surveillance system called Golden Shield for monitoring Civilian use of internet 35000 internet police jobs were created to monitor and censor websites in China. Two cartoon police officers JingJang and ChaCha appeared on the screens to remind users to refrain from accessing sensitive information. The information about the dissidents were collected and prosecuted. Economic China does not have a full bloomed media like in US Average age of internet users is about 25 Users in China use search engines to search for songs and entertainment There is a gap on Internet connectivity in Urban and rural areas (Chiou, 2009) Social In China, Web access and usage is not distributed demographically...
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...Hajimusa Nazirov Course: International Business Data: 07.04.2013 Google in China Problem statement- The first I want to give some information about Google. Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include search, cloud computing, software and online advertising technologies. Most of its profits derive from AdWords. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 16 percent of its stake. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"and its unofficial slogan was "Don't be evil". In 2006 Google moved to headquarters in Mountain View, California. Rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond Google's core search engine. It offers online productivity software including email, an office suite, and social networking. Desktop products include applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. The company leads the development of the Android mobileoperating system, and of the browser-only Google Chrome OS for a specialized type of netbook known as a Chromebook. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware: it partners major...
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...to Google and was incorporated on the 4th of September 1998. The owners named changed the name to Google because of the play on word “googol” which was the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Therefore Google inc, was born and changed the way we find information on the world wide web. Since its founding in 1998, Google has been firmly involved to active philanthropy and to addressing the global challenges of climate change, education and poverty alleviation. Since 2006, Google also started up a serious of social initiatives and programs such as; China social innovation cup for college students, supporting earthquake relief efforts, Google grants, and other charitable endeavors. One program that has been a large part of Google’s sustainability programs is, “Google’s China Social innovation cup for college students” which is a nationwide competition that aims to attract China’s youth to become individuals of the social change. By gathering project ideas from college students, Google was able to fund the college student’s ideas to help address social issues happening around the globe. The social issues addressed have included education, poverty alleviation, disability aid, healthcare, women and children, arts and culture, and community development. Though project evaluation, mentorship and funding, Google hopes to play a huge role in driving true social responsibility in China and other surrounding countries. Another social responsibility program that Google created...
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...GOOGLE IN CHINA Page 154 Case Study 1-3 September 3, 2011 IBA 301.90 Principles of International Business Chad Heidorn What Philosophical principle did Google’s manager’s adopt when deciding that the benefits of operating in China outweighed the costs? When google managers decided that benefits of operating outweighed the costs they adopted a utilitarian approach. According to Utilitarian and Kantian ethics, “Most moral philosophers see value in Utilitarian and Kantian approaches to business ethics” ( Hill, 2011, p. 138). Even though Google was blocked by the Chinese authorities in 2002, users were directed to a Chinese rival and Google realized the potential of benefits it would get out of being in China. Google was to provide all information via the internet, but the chinese government was proactive censoring the information. China has a large potential internet market where Google can make a great number of profits. It was also wise for Google to give the Chinese users access to a limited amount of information, then to none at all. There was two choices to choose from, it could continue operations from the USA and not have the proper equipment needed, or open a operation in China, impose self censorship and give limited information to its users. Do you think that Google should have entered China and engaged in self-censorship, given the company’s long standing mantra “Don’t be evil”? Is it better to engage in self-censorship than have the government censor...
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...Yesenia Reyes International Business Google in China 1) What philosophical principles did Google’s managers adopt when deciding that the benefits of operating in China outweighed the costs? a. Google’s managers decided to adopt the utilitarian approach. With this business ethic, “it focuses attention on the need to weigh carefully all of the social benefits and costs of a business action and to pursue only those actions where the benefits outweigh the costs” (Hill, 2011, p.139). Google realized that the opportunity was too large to ignore, thus concerning themselves with the Friedman doctrine. Google.cn gives the “greatest amount of information” to China having censorship on all search results because of the government regulation. As a result, human right activists believe that Google’s has strayed off from their initial mission in order to gain more profit. In addition to adopting the utilitarian approach, it also adopted cultural relativism, naïve immoralist, and righteous moralist as well. 2) Do you think that Google should have entered China and engaged in self-censorship, given the company’s long-standing mantra “Don’t be evil”? Is it better to engage in self-censorship than have the government censor for you? b. I don’t believe Google should have entered China and engaged in self-censorship. Google made a decision not out of ethics. The government of China is the gatekeeper of who gets access to the global internet for all Chinese citizens. The...
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...researcher considered internet to be the greatest innovation of modern’s time. Suppose the facility of internet given to us taken by someone forcibly, then imagine our life without it. In recent development china and iran have restricted the information flow throughout their country, specially china have ban Google-universal search engine and email in its country. Firstly question arises why any country will ban if internet is so useful. There lots of hidden agenda of the govt that has to be protected, if there is free flow of information is there public start questioning on the procedures of govt work. Internet censorship in China is among the most stringent in the world. The government blocks Web sites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement, and other Internet sites The government’s computers intercept incoming data and compare it against an ever-changing list of banned keywords or Web sites, screening out even more information. The motive is often obvious: Since late 2010, the censors have prevented Google searches of the English word “freedom.” In March 2011, Google accused the Chinese government of disrupting its Gmail service in the country and making it appear as if technical problems at Google — not government intervention — were to blame. At the same time, several popular virtual private-network services, or V.P.N.’s, designed to evade the government’s computerized censors, have been crippled...
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