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2010年01月13日08:15 谷歌考慮全面退出中國市場
谷歌週二在一份博客文章中表達了上述想法。谷歌在博文中稱﹐去年12月中旬﹐他們偵測到一次來自中國、針對公司基礎架構的高技術、有針對性的攻擊﹐這次攻擊導致其知識產權被盜。
該博文說﹐谷歌相信攻擊者的目標是進入中國人權活動人士的Gmail賬戶﹐但似乎只有兩個Gmail賬戶被進入。
由谷歌首席法律顧問大衛•多姆德(David Drummond)執筆的這篇博文稱﹐這些攻擊、攻擊所揭示的監視行為﹐以及在過去一年試圖進一步限制網絡言論自由的行為使得谷歌得出這樣一個結論﹐那就是我們應該評估中國業務運營的可行性。
多 姆德寫道﹐公司已經決定不願再審查我們在Google.cn上的搜索結果﹐因此﹐如果可能﹐公司將在未來幾週公司和中國政府討論在什麼樣的基礎上我們能夠 在法律框架內運營未經過濾的搜索引擎。我們承認這很可能意味著公司將不得不關閉Google.cn﹐以及我們在中國的辦公室。
谷歌在同意審查其搜索結果的情況下於2006年推出了中文搜索引擎Google.cn。
Google's China Threat Carries Long-Term Risks To Company
Jessica E. Vascellaro
（更新完成）
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Google’s Threat Would Mean Giving Up a Lucrative Market
SAN FRANCISCO — Google threatened on Tuesday to pull out of China after it learned of immense security attacks and attempts to gain access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents and human rights activists.
In addition, the 20 or so other companies that may also have been attacked, many of them American, are now in the difficult position of deciding whether to follow Google, whose business in China is small. While it has several hundred employees in China, Google lags far behind the home-grown search engine Baidu.
But Google and other companies like Microsoft of Cisco have plenty to lose if they were to abandon what is rapidly becoming one of the most lucrative technology markets.
Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA, a consulting firm in Beijing that advises major telecommunications and technology companies, said many other multinational companies faced serious challenges in China. As nationalism and protectionism builds in China, he said, many technology companies have scaled back their ambitions there, particularly regarding content.
He cited recent crackdowns on Web sites and an attempt to force all PC makers to install software that censors the Internet.
“This has ramifications far beyond this case,” he said. “There have been a raft of decisions and unpredictability, a kind of unpleasantness about what’s happening here. There’s been this received wisdom that no one can afford not to be in China. But that is being questioned now.”
In an interview, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said Google’s revenue in China was “immaterial.” But he acknowledged that Google could eventually miss an opportunity presented by a booming Internet market. “I suppose there is a risk there if it becomes a major market. We are not going to make a financially based decision to stay in a market that is intolerable for us,” he said.
Google’s decision amounts to an implicit admission that its gamble that it could help open China has failed.
Mr. Drummond said that if the company could not reach an accommodation with the government, it might shut down its Chinese search engine, but it would try to keep some of the 600 or so employees in China.
Yahoo, as well, has come under sharp attacks from activists. Rights groups say Yahoo has helped identify at least four people, including the journalist Shi Tao in 2004, who have since been imprisoned for voicing dissent online. Yahoo, which has since sold its Chinese operations to a local company, Alibaba, did not respond to requests for comment.
Microsoft, which has extensive operations in China, declined to comment on Google’s moves or its broader stance toward China. A Microsoft spokesman, Frank X. Shaw, said, “We have no indication that any of our mail properties has been compromised.”
Many people in Silicon Valley were surprised by Google’s stance. “I don’t think anybody is going to run away from China,” said Joe Schoendorf, a partner at Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with a major presence in China. “Google has Microsoft on the ropes, and China is arguably the world’s most important market outside of the U.S. You don’t walk away from that on principle.”
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