The REAL Reason that Google has Lost China

Amid the flurry of punditry and posturing that has surrounded Google's decision to pull its search business out of China and its accusations of hacking by the Chinese, there's another story. Non-elite Chinese people don't find Google's search (or its other services) useful. Google has failed to gain a foothold in the Chinese market because Google hasn't paid attention to making it easy for Chinese customers to use its search engine or its tools.

 
                            Image: from Tricia Wang

The best "on the ground" explanation of how Google has screwed up in China, comes from Tricia Wang's blog Cultural Bytes. Tricia is an ethnographer who has been working with urban migrants in China. In her fascinating blog post, entitled: "My Suggestions for Making Google Services more Relevant for Non-Elite Chinese Users (Involves Some Ethnography)", Tricia points to three reasons why the Chinese don't use Google:

1. They don't know how to find it (or pronounce its name)!

Tricia writes:

"People didn’t even know how to correctly pronounce and agree on the pronunciation of the name “Google.” When I was with a group of 5 youth, I asked them if they used Google, instead of getting an answer we launched into a 10 minute conversation trying to figure out the correct name.....people were unsure of how to type in the name “Google” on the computer keyboard......IF youth did get to Google’s site successfully by either typing in the name correctly or going to Google.com, Gogle.COM, or Guge.COM/CN, it would usually be on their 5th or 7th or even 8th try - that is if they hadn’t given up yet and by then it was just clear that they were doing it because I had asked them to show me how to get to the Google site. It was quite obvious that going to the Google site was never part of their internet routine"

2. They feel a sense of identity and nationalistic pride in using Baidu (the native Chinese search engine)

"Part of Baidu’s success lies in its successful marketing campaign against Google, using nationalism as one of their publicity strategies. It’s been working well. The campaign is so effective that netizens associate the use of Google with being unpatriotic....Another way that Baidu has had an advantage over Google is that Chinese and Hong Kong TV programming will show screen-shots of Baidu when they refer to the internet. Most recently I watched a a show on the Phoenix Channel (Hong Kong based) on January 22nd that showed several screen-shots of how Baidu helped a kidnapped child reunite with his biological parents after 12 years of separation. There are so many stories that talk about how the internet, as symbolized by Baidu, has helped citizens in everyday life."

3. Google doesn't understand their messaging culture

"Youth didn’t see how any of the services offered by Google were easier to use than the ones that they were already using. This is because Google operates in an e-mail paradigm while other services operate in a messenger paradigm..a youth asked me, ” how do you leave pictures and messages for others?” I would say, “just send them an email.” But here’s the thing - youth don’t have to send emails when they are using MSN Messenger. There’s a major disconnect in communication culture. Messenger-like services don’t operate on an email paradigm. QQ and MSN users can go to a friend’s MSN Live profile or QQ box to leave a message or post a photo. You can check on each friend’s page to see their last update."

Google Hasn't Made an Effort to Understand How Normal Chinese Use the Internet

While it's true that Baidu has received preferential treatment by the Chinese government and on the airwaves, it's also clear that Google has itself to blame for not coming up with a name that people can remember. You would also think that a company as rich as Google could have invested in observing the habits and norms of its target audience in China. Tricia Wang's observations and insights are incredibly valuable. Too bad Google didn't do some ethnography of its own in a market as important as China!

Comments

[Mikey]

Klaus brings up an interesting point...If Google can't succeed in China, should they attempt at least to make a public move that would win more appreciation in Google-dominated regions.

I don't understand why Google is even thinking about sailing away. Hard to believe that it's a case of censoring when this has been going on since Google's beginning in China. And I disagree with politicians who are getting involved in this and encouraging more companies to follow suit. Why now after all this time? Did something just ring in their head or become the flavor of the month?

[Peter Horne]

Hi Patty,

I had a few dissenting thoughts on your google note... While it does look like they have some work to do on their cultural and customer focus, I can't see these as being major strategic points.

First, regarding popularity, when I was in China I talked a lot to my interpreter about their use of the internet. I distinctly recall her telling me that the reason why Baidu was popular against Yahoo and Google was that Baidu allowed unfettered music and movie downloads. Ie. it allowed pirating (and still does). The western firms did not and so weren't as popular as they didn't meet market expectations.

My view is that 33% market share for a foreign company in China is extraordinary. China does not allow any more than 25% foreign ownership of a Chinese company, and normally if it's a bank or other critical component of the economy, you always have a "partner" company that ultimately has the government as your major shareholder. Once again, for Google to independently have 33% market share is extraordinary!!!!

In any industry, you can pretty much fix any problem if you have a profitable market share of 33%. You can criticise Googles for tardiness or oversight, however these customer issues would ultimately be addressed as they improved their "paltry" 33% market share through operational and continuous improvement. They have a culture that is obsessed with meeting customer needs and they invest over the odds on detail and innovation to win. I really can't agree that this is a major point.

The sense of nationalistic pride driving choice I agree is a salient point. The Chinese are very nationalistic. But once again this underlines the extraordinary success of the 33% market share. Google overcame nationalism for 33% of the participants in a market where the current generations were all raised up on government propaganda. That is extraordinary.

Also, 33% of Chinese internet users remember the name Google. How can it be seen as a problem? 33% know it already. Google was an abstract maths term that only nerds like me had half a chance of knowing before it turned in to a brand. They're 33% of the way there in China. They're well passed the tipping point. Do you think that Microsoft is going to change Bing if a Chinese focus group responds negatively? No, they'll advertise and promote the brand.

As a non American, (and I know you know this) Americans do not understand the messaging culture in other countries. As you know outside the US the mobile phone networks have always been standardised and so SMS took off as the major IM paradigm, and MMS took off as well with the new generation of video and photo phones. My kids use Facebook messaging when they are on Facebook (and when they should be doing homework!), but their preferred messaging is SMS. An email address to them is what their school gives them, and they have a yahoo or gmail account to create their Facebook accounts. But they NEVER use email to communicate with each other. I don't even know my kids email addresses as they never read them, and the grandparents had to sign in to Facebook to get in touch with the grandkids because they can't get them to read their emails. Two of my four kids have iPhones and I asked them if they wanted me to setup their email and they said they didn't need it because they had SMS and Facebook.... and so it goes on. That's a HUGE cultural difference that is true across all of Asia & Europe where GSM was always the standard... So my point is that it's a bit rough just giving Google a hard time not understanding or responding to this difference in fine detail. You can't even get Google messaging or checkout services in any countries other than the US and UK, but they're not criticised for not meeting all the needs in other markets. They would get to it... they would have a plan and it would have had a priority - or not.

My view is that the West, because of the profit motive, wants to ascribe Western values on to China so that we can get on with business. 5 nanoseconds in China trying to do business ( (or even getting a Visa) immediately shows you that business is done the Chinese way in China, or no way. Not only do they have different values to us, their values cut across our values. Google is one of the most profitable companies in the world and they're proven capitalists. For a successful capitalist/free market company with such massive market share to pick a fight with the largest emerging market in the world - I believe we have to give them the benefit of the doubt and ascribe their behaviour to reaching the limits of their ability to conform, rather than their ability to succeed.

They are already a success - and they are putting it at risk. I give them the benefit of my doubt, and my support.

Cheers...Pete

[Klaus-Peter Speidel]

This is an extremely insightful article.

Do you think Google has just been good communicating their move out of China, making it look like it was for moral rather than commercial reasons?

But then, even thoughBaidu led in market share with 63.9%, Google's 31.3% is not soo bad that it would justify getting out of the market altogether (Source: http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2010/01/05/baidu-google-yahoo-and-bing-2009-was-a-battleground-in-chinese-search/). Is it?