So Google are doing shit in china and decide to turn a bad situation into a good one by trying to look like martyrs. They only hold about 20% of the search market compared to Baidu's 70%, this figure has barely changed in the past few years.
CHINA
CN - 1,338,612,968(*) population ('09) - Area: 9,806,391 sq km
Capital city: Beijing - population 7,724,932 ('07)
360,000,000 Internet users as of Sept/09, 26.9% penetration, per CNNIC
83,366,000 broadband Internet connections as of June/09, per ITU.
*Note Baidu has roughly 70% of the market serving roughly 252,000,000 peoples searches.
But the big factor is Google can't afford not to be in China, they are the biggest internet market in the world, and 20,000,000 Chinese are moving into the middle class every year where they need the latest gadgets to prove there place in society, be it mobile phones (Android? Think they are working on making this available for China's mobile band), computers/internet access (note less than 7% have broadband access for themselves).
From Baidu Annual report 2008 - Item 5.A
US$468m for serving 252,00,000 people. In comparison google would be making what? US$200m? This is a small amount compared to what Google makes Annually overall, but the China market is booming (Note Baidu's 66.6% increase in profit compared to 2007, and the very minor changes in market share between Baidu and Google), these figures will raise dramatically in the coming years.A. Operating Results
Overview
Our operations are primarily based in China, where we derive substantially all of our revenues. Total revenues
in 2008 were RMB3.2 billion (US$468.8 million), an 83.3% increase over 2007. Operating profit in 2008 was
RMB1.1 billion (US$160.8 million), a 100.4% increase over 2007. Net income in 2008 was RMB1.0 billion
(US$153.6 million), a 66.6% increase over 2007.
There are two sides to this, why are Google pulling out?
Do they really want to make a stand against the lack of freedom of speech in China?
Or.
Are they hastily pulling out of a market because they aren't making any progress on market share (which is why I say hastily, 20% of 360,000,000 users is better than say 80% of Australia's 17,000,000 internet users. Even if Google Australia profits AUD$600m a year, we aren't growing as quick as China.)
Either way, this is going to get Political bitches.