Let’s face it: Google is the best search engine, even in the Chinese Internet dominated by the local moloch Baidu. Google is the best because it has the best search algorithm, the best suite of added-value services (how cool is Gmail?), and much more.
Google has recently renewed his ICP licence and government officials acknowledged the legality of Google’s tricky strategy for its survival in China.
Don't be evil. Get an ICP.
What is an ICP licence? Officially, it is some sort of census-system adopted by the Ministry of Information Techology in China to make sure that every single Website hosted in the People’s Republic can be traced back to a physical or juridical person (or a figurehead). Think about what happened to publications and newspapers during the nazifascist period in many parts of Europe, but with the involvement of digital technologies and lots of content in Mandarin. In fact, the ICP licence is a number that must be placed at the footer of any site’s homepage.
There are two different ICP licences: commercial and non-commercial licences. Of course, like everything else in the PRC, hybrid and special licences can be negotiated ad-hoc, according to the applicants’ and the state’s needs. Hey, this is China, and there’s no clear rule of law yet. Contracts are merely pieces of papers. Google for example got his ICP renewed, and it is allowed to operate only for its core search functions, Gmail, and its advertisement products. For example,
- Google Docs and its enterprise incarnations are still blocked.
- Blogspot is blocked.
- Google Maps/Earth could soon encounter some problems, since new Chinese regulations regarding on-line mapping systems came into effect, particularly if such applications allow the submission and inclusion of user-generated maps. As a result, Foursquare got locked out.
Everybody can easily obtain an ICP, allegedly. More often, the entire process is as shady as every other similar procedure in China. Especially if you are a foreigner individual or company, and operate in such as delicate industry such as knowledge (publishing, search engines, and anything related of which you might think of). And particularly if you want to do business with Chinese individuals: if you run an on-line business and need to emit a fapiao (invoice), then there’s no escape from the ICP. Just like what happened to Google.
How do you get an ICP?
- You apply online through the official website. And wait.
- You wait. Sometimes a lot.
- After a while, you are asked to pay a certain sum of money, and wait.
- If you personally know somebody who’s somehow connected to the government (could also be a “legit” Web agency), add extra money to the point above. Go back to point 1, and subtract some waiting time from 1 to 3.
- You are lucky! You just got your ICP number, but mind you: you have to pay additional hidden fees and produce disclaimers, plus contracts stating that your Website doesn’t provide “unhealthy content” (what is that?) and that you are basically not conspiring against the state.
- Skip all the above points if you know somebody influential in your level of governance or “constituency”. Licences are assigned at the provincial and local level, so its issuance indirectly helps one of China’s national sports and its many fans: rent-seeking by hungry government officials.
A post on Mashable hints that Google basically sold out to the Communist state, and abandoned its initial adamant stance against censorship while sniffing a potentially bigger slice of the ever-growing Chinese Internet market. Fair enough. Google is not evil but it’s also in China for the cold cold cash, not for charity. At least it didn’t help the Chinese authorities to jail some dissidents, like Yahoo! did some time ago.
The reality is that Google is functional to China’s development, and the state has a more or less direct interest in keeping Big G in China. At the moment, even though it controls only a relatively small slice of the Chinese search market (some say 30%, other say less), Google is fundamental to the Chinese on-line ecosystem and economy.
Besides the obvious global and diplomatic backlash caused by the global public opinion waking up and hearing from the radio or some RSS feed that Google essentially became outlawed in China…
- How many Chinese companies could reach the foreign audience with such ease and swiftness, without the help of AdWords? And I am not talking about the spamful wholesale suppliers of cheap fake drugs for helping middle-aged men rediscover their youth again (in bed). I am talking about all these local companies who target long-tail niches, and eventually need a Simplified Mandarin interface (and payment / invoice system) for conducting their advertising campaigns on search results pages.
- How many foreign companies in China (let them be WFOEs or joint ventures) would be able to operate at full-efficiency levels without the familiar helping hand from Google – which provides a solid search engine and widely adopted enterprise solutions? Let’s not forget that 2.5% of China’s GDP comes from Foreign Direct Investment, and that FDI is on the rise while already accounting for almost 50% of the Chinese output in the service sector, crucial for the overall modernisation of China.
- Last but not least: how many foreigners in China (a group expected to be growing exponentially) would feel comfortable being forced to use the functions offered by Baidu (besides the pirate MP3 search, constantly grilled by the majors), with Google being obliterated from the Chinese Internet?
Let’s think about what has been expressed in this post before jumping to the conclusion that Google forgot to be a “good company” and bent over censorship, the Chinese government, and the institutionalised lack of free speech in the biggest country of the world. China’s more clever than Google and its expansion plans for the Chinese Internet. And Google must be free to operate in China until Baidu will steal its very last bit of technology and starts marketing it at half the price. This is China, baby.
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