At the beginning of 2010, our biggest competitor Google search engine indicated that it threatened to exit China internet. In December, 2009, Google revealed that hackers tried to access their customers’ email accounts on its servers. It was a huge shock to the world. One of the biggest search engine companies decided to exit the largest internet market of China. It not only became the issue of politics between the two countries but also brought some impacts to its competitors. Being forced to censor the search results was the most important reason for giant Google to quit China. And Google's chief legal officer David Drummond pointed out in a blog post that at least 20 other large companies from a wide range of businesses were similarly targeted as the same reason. As another biggest company in the world, should our Microsoft’s Bing search engine follow Google exiting China? It becomes a big issue for us. Should our Microsoft’s Bing search engine follow Google exiting China? What if Bing quits China? What will be the results? Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, confirmed in an interview with China Daily that Bing now has less than 1 percent of Chinese market share. Will Microsoft’s Bing take the high road or the low road in order to gain a bigger piece China's fast-growing Internet market? This report is to explore whether Microsoft’s Bing should quit China or not and the results will come from the decision. Especially on these most important parts such as profit, market shares, long-term development and reputation. By analyzing on each part, it will show the influence to Microsoft’s Bing and for further decision.

Content

Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………..6
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...7
The problem……………………………………………………………….........7
Findings Comparison…………………………………………………………….........8 Profit…………………………………………………………………………..8 Market Shares…………………………………………………………………8 Long-term development………………………………………………………9 Reputation…………………………………………………………………….10
Recommendations…………………………………………………………………….11
References………………………………………………………………………….....12
Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………13

Will the quitting of our biggest competitor, giant Google search engine, has any influence on out Microsoft’s Bing? That turns out a question, should Microsoft’s Bing follow Google to quit the largest internet marker of China? This report is going to answer the question, what if Microsoft’s Bing quits China. The report is based on the researches by comparing profit, marketing shares, long-term future and reputation of our company and competitors, analyzing the situation we are facing in China market after Google’s quitting. By searching several official website, reviewing a few quotes by Chiefs from both Google and Microsoft, and discussing with some professors, there comes out the influences on some importance parts of Microsoft’s Bing if we quit China. For instance, increase or decrease on profit, more or less market shares, developed or undeveloped future, and positive or negative reputation. On Jan 12, 2010, an amazing announcement came out, our biggest competitor giant Google search engine threatened that they had decided to quit the world largest internet market---China. The decision made by one of the biggest search engine companies had influence on other competitors. As a result, there turns out a question, with being force to censor search result, and the risk of being attacked by hackers, should our company Microsoft’s Bing search engine quit China too? What if we decide to quit China, what results are about to coming out. By comparing with the results Google brought out, we will see the influence to our search engine. And under the competition with Baidu which is the biggest Chinese search engine occupies more than half of the market shares, what influences Microsoft’s Bing will have. In addition, there also a big issue comes out which is to choose ethic or business. There are also something important than profits. What the results will turn out for Microsoft’s Bing in that situation.

Profits China, as a big and strong country, has the biggest internet market in the world. It contains more than 350 millions web users. In other words, staying in China market means to have a market with six hundred millions values every year with $1 billion search revenue. As a search engine, advertisements are another huge income. It is shown on report that Microsoft’s Bing retailers search advertising revenues has grew by half this year. After Google’s exiting from China, it could open up the field for others, including Microsoft, to increase its revenue, especially some foreign advertisers who are looking to target the Chinese market, they usually like to depend on famous international search engines. No doubt, with the quitting of Google, the gain of our search engine Microsoft’s Bing will have big spaces for development. Therefore, there will be a definitely loss for us if we decide to quit the fast-growing internet market of China.
Market Shares Despite two large search engines Google and Microsoft’s Bing, there is another important Chinese search engine which name is Baidu. It is a giant Chinese-language search engine that controls over half of the Chinese internet market. A chart showing the market share each search engine has in china shows below:

As it shown on the chart, the market share of Microsoft’s Bing is less than 5 percent. Then it may conclude that there would not be a big difference for us to exit China. However, Google's exit from mainland of China has provided a good opportunity for our search engine to expand its market share in China. According to the chart, Google contains 35.6 percent of market shares. After Google leaving China, assuming Microsoft’s Bing will remain, that market shares were owned by Google will re-distribute. These market shares most likely to Baidu, and the remainder may split unequally between Microsoft’s Bing and others users. In other words, if Microsoft's Bing search engine quit from China, it definitely would not gain some market share after Google search engine exiting China.
Long-term Development Foreseeable, China is experiencing the highest rate of development and will reasonably continue this trend on a long-term basis. As the leader of developing countries and a potential super power in the following century, China contains the greatest business potential that any company, especially the multi-national countries companies like us, has been dreaming of. Keeping Microsoft’s Bing in China could also help us to understand Chinese people’s habits and improve our other products in order to make a better sale there. Besides, with the concern of China’s large population, it is justifiable to predict that we will witness a further huge increase in the number of Chinese internet users, although it is already the largest group in the world today. Therefore, Chinese should definitely be an essential part of our future revenue source.
Reputation
However, Google’s quitting wins them a great international reputation of fighting for equal human rights by rejecting Chinese government’s censorship policy. As Google's chief legal officer David Drummond pointed out, at least 20 other large companies were confronting the similar issue within which only Google stepped up and threw the China government’s strict censorship requirements into the spotlight of global judgment. Their action gains them score of separation of ethnics and business. In conclusion, Google suddenly gain a great image of not only a business company but also a human rights fighter. Microsoft cooperation, with a history of more than 20 years, is a prestigious company. It will be a good reputation for us to focus on not only business but also ethic part. Besides, American government has always been holding a positive attitude towards Google’s move and tremendously backs them up from behind since Google stood out for freedom about human rights. Similarly, if Microsoft’s Bing exits from China, we will stand on the side of the good. There are more important things in this world than profit, like freedom being among them.

According to analysis above, quitting China in the name of fighting back with Chinese government’s human rights violating policies could both benefit and hurt us to some extent. On the one hand, leaving China means to leave a huge and increasing cake to our competitors and obviously lose an immeasurable amount of profit. In addition, as Google leaves China, it is a golden opportunity for us to capture what Google left in China, their market share, without any significant costs. Apparently, it is a “now or never” situation, since Baidu, our greatest competitor in China after Google’s retreat, must also be staring at Google’s market share. It is confident in the battle with Baidu due to our great global reputation that Baidu does not have. Furthermore, China must share an important part in Microsoft’s future strategy because it is so potential and underestimated. We also have the largest group of Microsoft software users in China. By staying in China and tolerating Chinese government’s policy, we will be able to serve our Chinese clients better on a long-term basis. However, on the other side, not following Google might draw an embarrassing line between Google and us: Google is fighting for ethnics and human rights other than their profits while Microsoft solely concentrates on business. It is one question that our leader and decision makers are expected to deal with if we are not following Google.

Reference
Gralla, Preston. “Microsoft should follow Google and drop censorship in China.” computerworld. computerworld Inc, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .

Lee, Melanie, and Alexei Oreskovic. “Google Threatens To Quit China .” Billboard. Billboard, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .

MacKinnon, Rebecca. “In China, Bing’s turn to show some spine.” Cable News Network. Cable News Network, 24 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .

Xing, Wang. “Microsoft eyes Bing opportunities.” China Daily. China Daily, 1 Sept. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .

- - -. “Mundie: Perseverance pays off in long run.” China Daily. China Daily, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .