Google in China: Ethical Dilemmas & Business Strategy - A Case Study

This case study examines Google's entry into China in 2006 and the ethical challenges it faced due to the country's censorship policies. Google's mission of providing universal access to information clashed with the Chinese government's requirement for self-censorship, leading to the launch of Google.cn, a censored version of its search engine. The case explores the ethical implications of Google's decision to comply with Chinese censorship, weighing the organization's commitment to free information against the laws and conditions of the operating environment. China's complex censorship model and Google's initial success, followed by its eventual struggle to maintain its unique selling proposition (USP) and profitability, are analyzed. Ultimately, Google's decision to withdraw major operations from China highlights the difficulties of balancing ethical principles with business objectives in a restrictive political landscape. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Question 1
At the time of Inception as an ISP provider in China in 2002, Google was present as a modest
search engine, working to cater to the needs of the emerging market of Internet users of China.
The move to scale up its operation in China was a wise move to increase its profits in a new land.
Besides being a service, Google has become a “different culture of accessing knowledge tools”.
Its success in other countries was remarkable. Google’s Mission of “universal access to
information and knowledge” can be contributed to this move made by Google in the market of
China (Wilson, p. 8).
They were successful initially because of the favorable environment of the market. At the turn of
this century, the Chinese government was developing venues where their population can get
selective access to the business culture and other aspects of the western world and other parts of
the world (Wilson, p. 11). Google’s stature and function were apt to serve the immediate needs
of the government. They were looking at Google as the role model for other Chinese search
engines that were trying to carve a place for themselves.
Question 2
There were three specific aspects of the mission, first to “cater to the interests of the users,”
second “easy and unconditional access to the information” and third “responsiveness to the local
condition.” Google respected the sovereign of China by avoiding all the sensitive keywords that
can go against their wishes. They followed the commitment of “don’t be evil” by creating a
selective interface of information which was a “win-win” situation for all the parties (Wilson, p.
7). Google’s operations in China can be seen from many ethical scales, the first ethical scale is

related to the organization's commitment to ensure unconditional access to meaningful and
verified information. Another ethical scale was related to the “laws of the land” where they were
operating. The “self-censorship” condition imposed by the Chinese government was against the
fundamental ethics of the organization.
“Google as a Gateway of the world for China,” Google as a gateway of the rest of the world for
China,” were two more mottos of Google while making an entry in China. Google accepted the
censorship norms of the Chinese government to express its solidarity with the principle of “don’t
be evil.”
Question 3
China’s model of censorship was successful because it was very complex to be democratic in
nature. Chinese authorities were free to use the tactics of intimidation to curb down unwanted
content on the internet. The great firewall of China was not limited to just restricting offensive
keywords. They were trigger happy about restricting contents which can cause a detrimental
impact on the prescribed notions related to nationalism (Wilson, p. 9).
Google is an organization that is nurtured up in a country like the USA where free will thinking
and expression of freedom forms the crux of democracy. It was not the same with China where
policies were centralized and restrictive towards radical thinking even when it is not anti-
establishment. Google didn’t try to improve the conditions, they succumb to the conditions laid
by the government, and however, they realized that somehow they lost the essence and USP of
their offerings in this censorship. This lack of USP forced them to lose the rank in the race of
profit and they called off the major operations in China in order to cut down the losses.

References
Wilson, K. (n.d.). Google in China " The Great Firewall". The Kenan Institute for Ethics,
Dukethics.org.