If Google pulls out of China because of frustration with government restrictions, it will not be the first time an American Internet giant has retreated from the country.
EBay and Yahoo arrived with high hopes for a market that failed to live up to their expectations. Social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have never managed to gain a significant foothold in China, partly because of government blocking and censorship and partly because most major Chinese Internet companies offer popular social networking features of their own.
In fact, no major American Internet company has dominated its field in China, which by some measures is the world’s largest Internet market. Many experts thought Google would be the first.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/technology/16failure.html
EBay and Yahoo arrived with high hopes for a market that failed to live up to their expectations. Social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have never managed to gain a significant foothold in China, partly because of government blocking and censorship and partly because most major Chinese Internet companies offer popular social networking features of their own.
In fact, no major American Internet company has dominated its field in China, which by some measures is the world’s largest Internet market. Many experts thought Google would be the first.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/technology/16failure.html