Policy Change for Google in China

Policy Change for Google in China

In 2006 Google announced that it will apply self-censorship to its services in China to comply with the internet censor law of China. The censored topics include the independence of Taiwan or Tiananmen massacre which are not censored in worldwide Google service. Google spokesperson defended their decision with this statement : "While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information is more inconsistent with our mission".

In 2006, U.S Justice Department asked to main internet companies to share their records with them for a child pornography investigation. AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to share user information with Justice Department, however Google resisted for a long time for not to share its user information with the official departments. Google started a legal fight with the Justice Department which has taken months and in the end Justice Department had to agree for asking much more limited user information.

David A. Vise has interpreted this issue in his article "Google : Think Again" with these words: "Google's motivation wasn't protecting people's privacy; it was a fear of losing its competitive edge. If Google were forced to disclose too much information about how its users search the Internet, then its competitors might be able to decipher secrets of its technology. Google will fight to protect its privacy at all costs."

Market Share

The market share of Google in the U.S search engine market was %42.3 in United States while the most powerful competitor Yahoo had %27.6 market share according to a research. In 2008 Google has reached in % 63.1 market shares while the most powerful competitor Yahoo had fallen to % 20.5 market shares, the other competitor Microsoft only reached %8.5 market share. In 2010 Google has reached %72,3 market share, while the most powerful competitior Yahoo has decreased to %15.3. In the light of this market share information, it is safe to say that the competition in search engine market is virtually over and now Google is completely dominating the market.