Google Case Study

Case study : Google   Cécile Carrobourg Essec business school.

What Google should do for integrate China market:

• Great firewall blocks some website and e-mails with particular keywords, because some google results don’t comply with Chinese law, regulations and values.
• Should place servers behind “Great Firewall” to allow their users to go through the censorship. Moreover it permits to have a quick connection.
• Conform to the Chinese laws, Google would imply to agree to store its data in China, to give access to this information to the Chinese authorities, and to comply with the censorship which settles the Chinese Internet.
• Google could invest in “Baïdu” and “Alibaba” but it might not to be able to obtain an interest from these website.

Google should do that? Yes or No?

• China wants to complete its technological parity with the United States, the goal is to provide to its citizen the best technologic access. So Google implementation has some advantages.
• Prevent the brain drain from China to Us and other western country. In addition it will create some jobs in China resulting in the improvement nation’s economy.
• Be present in China represent a huge opportunity of market with a population more than 1 billion which are a part of internet’s development.

However:

• Google should have “.cn” to distance with its American origins but it doesn’t correspond to his brand image, it will be a way against its philosophy which would be subject to criticism. At the end, it would result in losses of market share. 
• There are strong protectionism, patriotism, nationalism due to the history: colonization by many countries of the world which makes that their opening to the world was disastrous consequently, Chinese wants they independence.
•  Chinese user won’t accept a foreigner brand, especially an American brand.
• Concerning the companies; participation limited with the impossibility to hold a majority part here.
• One of the Chinese fear would indeed be the American hegemony. So China could think that Google represents the American way, which would cause the rejection even the boycott by the population. In fact, they privileged local consumption.

To conclude China holds great potential on its market: a huge population growth and rising every year. It is a very interesting market. However, one of the main obstacles in China is its strong protectionism, which is why it can be difficult for a foreign company to enter its market. In addition, they tend to favor local consumption.