Alphabet chairman questions Google's China project
The chairman of Alphabet – Google’s parent company – expressed concerns that the tech giant’s potential foray into China could mean the search leader will have to compromise its core values.
In an interview with Bloomberg, John Hennessy conveyed hesitancy about the value he thinks the company could bring to Beijing due to government censorship and controls.
“Anybody who does business in China compromises some of their core values. Every single company, because the laws in China are quite a bit different than they are in our own country,” he said. “The question … that I struggle with, is are we better off giving Chinese citizens a decent search engine, a capable search engine even if it is restricted and censored in some cases, than a search engine that’s not very good?”
The internet giant is reportedly developing a China-specific, censored version of its search engine in order to placate the government in Beijing. The browser would allegedly be able to suppress certain search results.
According to Bloomberg, the initiative is one of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s principal objectives.
The company pulled a censored-version of its search engine from the country in 2010.
China currently has more than 800 million users, according to government figures, as reported by The Financial Times.
In September, former-Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he thinks there will be two versions of the internet within 10 years, one run by China and the other by the U.S.
"I think the most likely scenario now is not a splintering, but rather a bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt added the “danger” that comes along with the innovative products being developed in Beijing is that a different leadership regime will emerge in government, along with censorship and controls. He said other countries may eventually adopt the censored Chinese infrastructure.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has also raised concerns about China, complaining to FOX Business that 90 percent of companies in the country are using the Microsoft operating system, though only 1 percent are actually paying for it. Ballmer says the theft has to end.