Google, Inc.: "Figuring Out How to Deal with China"

Author: Lawrence, Anne T.
Source: Babson College
Year: 2007
Company Name: Google
Number of pages: 21

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Abstract:

Would it be possible for Google to enter China without violating its informal corporate motto, 'don't be evil?' In 2005, Google Inc's top management team and board of directors struggled to decide if the company should enter China - and if so, how. Since 2000, the company had offered a Chinese-language version of its popular search engine, hosted on servers outside China. However, Chinese users found this service slow and unreliable, and Google was rapidly losing market share, particularly to the Chinese firm Baidu. At the same time, the number of Internet users in China - and with them the potential for on-line advertising revenue - had been growing almost exponentially. Yet, serious ethical questions remained unresolved. China operated the most far-reaching and sophisticated system of Internet censorship in the world. Any Internet firm doing business there would have to filter content that the communist regime considered offensive. Moreover, the Chinese government had demanded that other US Internet firms identify individuals who had used their e-mail or blogs to criticise the authorities, and at least one dissident had been jailed as a result. Was doing business in China compatible with Google's mission to make the world's information 'universally accessible and useful?' Winner of the 2007 'Dark Side' case writing competition co-sponsored by the Critical Management Studies Interest Group and the Management Education Division of the Academy of Management. This case is suitable for courses in business ethics or business and society. It may also be used in a course in strategic management in which the instructor wishes to consider the ethical implications of a decision to enter a new market, or in a course in information systems in which the instructor wishes to consider the ethical implications of technology.