I read a case study a few weeks back on Google and the censorship problems it was having whilst trying to enter China. Local search engine companies such as Baidu.com are quite popular with the Chinese crowd compared to Google.
After reading that case study, my initial thought was, if Google wanted to enter the Chinese market from within the country, why not just acquire Baidu or come up with some sort of JV with them or any of the other popular China-based companies.
One of the problems with Google in China is that the Chinese consider Google to be an outsider (not from China), and a company that is not really focused on their wants and needs. The case study mentioned the Chinese public use the net for entertainment purposes (chatting, online gaming, music/video downloading, etc..) and Google does not really offer those types of services just yet.
The Huffington Post has an article entitled: Why Google When You Can Baidu?, which mentions that same sentiment.
Do you think Google should acquire the likes of Baidu to enter the Chinese market? What would you do to enter the Chinese market if you were in a position similar to Google?
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