Lets Hear Pink

A few days back after days of speculation the 'miracle' good news was finally in. China had renewed Google's license to operate in the country. But there was more to it than just that.

Specifically, Google's search engine in China will now consist only of product and music searches (and maybe maps, although, according to China expert Bill Bishop, that involves a different license that has yet to be renewed).There will be a link on Google.cn to the uncensored full search engine Google runs in Hong Kong, Google.com.hk.

When Google announced that it would stop operations in China due to 'ethical' issues,it had a lot of sympathizers. Chinese people actually openly mourned the loss of Google by putting flowers and candles out at the company’s Beijing headquarters.Most publications noted that if Google has to lose its $600 million in revenues from China by pulling out of the country, then at the very least it had won a lot in brand and integrity points by the public, English-language and scorched-earth way they did it.

But with China having the highest population of internet users in the world it seemed like Google played it with the heart instead of the mind. It actually helped Baidu,China's home grown search engine which had more than double Google's market share to get a better hold.Ian Bremmer aptly said-Google v. China wasn't about free speech. It was about Baidu. Specifically, it was about the Chinese government's preference that a Chinese company own the China market.

Apparently the Chinese obsession to show the world that they are better than the rest has actually benefited them.A number of Chinese Internet companies are building hoards of cash and valuable stock currencies. It’s possible those companies will start competing with Google for acquisitions both in the Valley and the rest of the world. Google, after all, has announced that its shopping spree is heating up, and given the woeful state of its competitors in the US (Yahoo and AOL are too damaged to out-bid Google; Facebook doesn’t yet have a stock currency) Chinese Internet companies could emerge as its chief competitors for hot properties and talented staffs of engineers.

Seems like China's gain is Google's loss.With the new move,it will take no time for it to become insignificant and irrelevant in China.Its 'ethics' now lay forgotten,it has no other foreign company support and its stock price has gone for a nose dive showing little signs of recovery.What started a bold,overconfident move by Google was quashed under the fist of the Chinese rule like a small revolt.

God help u Google!