Amid the controversy stirred by the search engine's threat to pull out of China, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted Friday as admitting that a possible exit was "not a business decision" and as saying, "We love China and Chinese people. This is not about them. It's about our unwillingness to participate in censorship."
Despite a high profile debut in the media when it first opened its office in mid-2005, Google China was on shaky ground in its early days.
As the Internet increases in popularity and the amount of information on the Web explodes, people need a quick way to find information.
Internet users on the Chinese mainland who tried to conduct a Google search Tuesday most likely failed to obtain results while mobile services users reported partial blocking during the last two days.
The Internet company owned by Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, Wednesday severed ties with Google's search services, sparking concerns that other companies may pull away from the Internet giant.
When Google made its threat to pull out of China on January 12, it titled its online announcement "A new approach to China," indicating its high expectations for rallying more foreign companies in China to its "noble" cause.
Baidu is one of the largest Chinese language search engines. Baidu provides Internet search and online marketing solutions. Baidu also develops and markets Web application software and provides related services.
Google primarily provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world's information.
Li studied information management at Peking University and the State University of New York, Buffalo. In 2000 he founded Baidu with Eric Xu. He has been the CEO of Baidu since January 2004.
Kai-Fu Lee, born December 3, 1961, is an information technology executive, a computer science researcher and former President of Google Greater China.
Copyright by Global Times © 2007-2010, All Right Reserved