Google's 10 years in China

By Yan Pei
0 CommentsPrint E-mail China.org.cn, January 19, 2010
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• On September 12, 2000, Google launched the Chinese language version of its search engine - Google.com.

• In September 2002, Google.com was briefly inaccessible in China. The incident was suspected to be connected with Google's Chinese competitors.

• On July 19, 2005, former Microsoft senior executive KaiFu-Lee joined Google and started to run Google's business in China. Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Google for unfair competition. The two parties reached a settlement before the case went to trial in December of the same year.

• On January 26, 2006, Google launched Google.cn and announced that it would censor the search results in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations. Google said that it was willing to compromise because it wanted to "make meaningful and positive contributions" to China's development while abiding by Chinese laws.

• In February, 2006, Google was reported by Chinese media to have to requisite ICP (Internet Content Provider) license and was suspected of operating illegally in China.

• On April 12, 2006, Google unveiled its Chinese name - 谷歌 (Gu Ge) in Beijing, marking an official entry into the Chinese market.

• On April 4, 2007, Google China Labs launched Google Pinyin IME. The new input method was later criticized by Sohu to have copied material from Sogou Pinyin, a similar product developed by Sohu. In the end, Google apologized to users and Sohu.

• On August 5, 2008, Google China launched its free music download service, in an attempt to compete with Baidu.

• In May 2009, Youtube.com, an online video sharing website owned by Google, was blocked in China. The website is still being blocked.

• On June 18, 2009, Google was condemned for spreading obscene contents on the Internet. On the previous day, Google.com, Gmail and other Google online services were unable to access for a short period of time.

• On September 4, 20009, Kaifu-Lee resigned from his post as Google China President and started his own venture capital company. Google assigned Liu Yun to take over Lee's business and operations duties.

• In October 2009, a number of Chinese writers and the Chinese Writers Association (CWA) accused Google China Digital Library of copyright infringement and noted that they may file a lawsuit against Google.

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