主题：谷歌退出中国的那些事 -- 果酱

3. Google has Gmail servers in China

Some reports have said that the reason Chinese hackers were able to access Gmail accounts is that Google has email servers physically located in China. This is not the case. Google says it has no email servers in the country.

When the company announced its plans to launch google.cn in January 2006, executives said one of the safeguards it planned to use to protect user interests was that it wouldn’t host user-generated content like email and blogs on servers in China.

1. Google failed in China

Google doesn’t say if it’s profitable in China, but there’s certainly no reason to assume it’s not. Baidu, its chief rival, reported net profit of about $153 million on revenue of $468 million for 2008, when it said it had 6,387 employees. Google’s revenue would have perhaps half or two thirds that amount, but it likely has a much lower cost base in China than Baidu, since Google is believed to employ well under 1,000 employees in the country, and can use technology developed by its U.S. headquarters.

But as growth in search and the Internet-at-large goes global, Google’s biggest competitors will increasingly come from China. With it’s announcement this week, it just communicated a powerful message to the world’s democracies or other anti-Chinese factions: Baidu is in the Chinese Government’s pocket; we’re not.

As I pointed out yesterday, this could loom large when it comes to future acquisitions. A number of Chinese Internet companies are building hoards of cash and valuable stock currencies. It’s possible those companies will start competing with Google for acquisitions both in the Valley and the rest of the world. Google, after all, has announced that its shopping spree is heating up, and given the woeful state of its competitors in the US (Yahoo and AOL are too damaged to out-bid Google; Facebook doesn’t yet have a stock currency) Chinese Internet companies could emerge as its chief competitors for hot properties and talented staffs of engineers.

I’m not suggesting that this is why Google made the move, nor do I know if the senior executives even view this as a potential threat. But should a Chinese Internet company make a bid for a US Internet gem, this week’s events will no doubt be brought up as a reason the US government should block it—something we’ve already seen when Arab companies have bid for ownership of US port controllers and financial institutions. That could prove a pretty savvy side-benefit for the search giant as the Internet battles of the next decade start to heat up.