Case Study: Google in China

Case Study: Google in China

Google China is a subsidiary of Google, Inc. and ranks as the number two search engine in China. The week four individual assignment for Global Business Strategies, MGT 448 is to select a case student from the International Business textbook. The case study is “Google in China.” The assignment provides a brief synopsis on legal, cultural, and ethical challenges confronted by Google. The assignment further determines the various roles the host government plays in Google’s global business operation. Last, the assignment summarizes the strategic and operational challenges facing global managers involved with Google in China.

With a population of more than one billion people and a vast reserve of low-wage workers, China is popular as both a consumer market and a superlative location for manufacturing and source products (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, n.d.). China is one of the fastest growing economies in history and is the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. An increasing number of companies are moving production to China to take advantage of tax incentives, high productivity rates, and cheap labor. The companies who can afford to pay Chinese workers per year what they, would pay normal workers in the United States per month, workers in China pay the price of cheap labor with his or her dignity, health, and human rights (Mills, n.d).

Google is the fastest growing Internet search engine company with a mission to organize the world’s information, make this information universally accessible, and useful to everyone. Internet censorship in China is among the most stringent in the world. The Chinese Communist Party established in 1921 controls the government, the people of China, and the flow of information in and out of the country. The government blocks websites discussing the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement, and other...