Google vs. China: The Endgame

Although the dispute between the Chinese government and Google continues to evolve, there were signs at the beginning of April that a ceasefire may be taking hold, one that could allow both sides to plausibly claim victory. At the end of March, Google failed to renew its Internet Content Provider (ICP) license in China; since an ICP license is required for all China-registered commercial websites, this effectively sounded the death knell for Google's simplified-Chinese search engine, google.cn.

All requests for the google.cn website are now redirected to Google's Hong Kong site, www.google.com.hk. The pullout has obviously damaged Google's business prospects in China, but it is not clear how much, since the company continues to conduct research and development work in China,