How would you characterize China’s market for online search and related services?

How would you characterize China’s market for online search and related services?

Its crystal clear that the Chinese online search and related services market is different from the one in the USA because of the huge interference by the government. The government regulations control what gets searched and search results availability. This aspect has made many firms in the market to create unique strategies to enable them to thrive in that market. The market is also characterized by a huge number of users due to the high population, which makes it very attractive but still competitive. The market’s users also have the element of loving search engines that are customized to their region in terms of language and content. These elements are evident in Baidu, which is the countries bulletin board and network for resellers. Firms have to come up with strategies that are like Baidu or better than Baidu to prevail.

Why was Google initially attracted to China? What changed its perspective?

Initially, Google was attracted to the Chinese search engine market by the huge and

ever-growing population in the country. The country was already hitting the one billion mark, and such a huge market base presented google with attractive benefits. The initial mission of google was to ‘organize the world’ information and make it universally accessible to the world.’ However, on entry, this perspective gradually changed due to reasons such as the censorship of many searches by the Chinese government. The firm felt that this was going against its core values on freedom of speech and high quality standards. The censorship made it hard for google to be effective in that market.

Besides, the stiff competition from Baidu was also responsible for the firm’s change of perspective because the firm seemed to be ahead and liked by many Chinese people. Lastly, Chinese users had a negative attitude toward foreign firms.

Should companies like Google conform to the Chinese government’s expectation regarding privacy, censorship, and distribution of the information?

On the aspect of morality, firms like google should not conform to the censorship and privacy rules set up by the Chinese government. The rules are not ethical, and they deny people’s rights to freedom of speech and privacy, and hence any firm that conforms to the rules supports the injustice.

What advantages does Baidu have over Google in the Chinese marketplace? How might Google overcome those advantages?

First and foremost, Baidu has been in the Chinese market for a longer time than Google and, therefore, has created brand awareness and gained brand loyalty from Chinese users. Besides, Baidu is conservative in nature, and this conforms well to the conservative Chinese population, unlike Google, which is progressive. Baidu has also abided by all governmental regulations and has therefore been capable of doing business without any governmental disruptions and scandals, unlike Google, which has found it hard to abide by the rules. Furthermore, Baidu seems to have a better search engine because of its innovative feature such as instant messaging and information-exchanging bulletin boards which are absent in google. Baidu has also created a network of resellers, which boosts online advertising, unlike Google, which does not have that feature. Baidu’s search engine is also fast, unlike Google.cn, which is blunt and low. All these factors make Baidu to be better than google in china.

Google has to undertake a lot of marketing to improve its brand and overcome these challenges. Besides, Google has to abide by the Chinese search engine regulations and also work on increasing more competitive features in its product through intensive market research.

 

What recommendations would you make for Google in China going forward?

First and foremost, it has to understand that the Chinese government is not going to relax any of their rules regarding the censorship rules soon, and hence they have to try to prevail through the market with the same rules. They, therefore, have to sacrifice their policies and qualities for them to be in a position to tap into the one billion-plus population in china. They also need to work closely with the Chinese government for them to build a system that is unique but still compliant with their regulations. Furthermore, google ha to also do a good market search on the Chinese market for it to understand the market’s needs and desires. This way, the firm will be capable of coming with a product that is desirable to the people of China.