Google faces hurdles in Chinese market
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China Business News reports that two of Google China's authorized sales agents recently quit the Google Adwords program and ended cooperation with the search engine.
The two agents, Suzhou's Universal Internet Media and Xi'an Weihua, have put their sales licenses on auction, a fellow sales agent told the newspaper. According to this agent, Universal Internet Media has sold its Google Adwords license to Beijing-based Bolanzi Network Technology Service Co., Ltd. It's still unclear whether Google China's Xi'an agent has sold its license.
Some of Google China's authorized agents have suffered slumps recently, the agent added, because otherwise they wouldn't have sold their licenses.
Starting from April, Google China required its agents to shift their business focus from the domestic market to the international market. Although this adjustment doesn't have a big impact on agents in the coastal cities, it has hurt the inland agents.
Moreover, Google China lost a partner. On July 21, Tianya.cn, a major Chinese-language forum site, announced the termination of its cooperation with Google. The search engine had provided technological support while also holding a stake in the website, said a middle-level manager of Tianya.cn. The manager said Tianya.cn is currently trying to buy back all the shares held by Google.
Google's other major partners in China include China Mobile, China Unicom, Alibaba.com, Sina.com and Tom.com. The two telecom carriers terminated cooperation with Google right after the search engine threatened to exit the Chinese market. Tom.com has also stopped its partnership with Google due to the expiration of the contract.
In addition, Sina.com has replaced the Google search on its homepage with its own iAsk search. "We are still under contract (with Google)," said Ge Jingdong, general manager of Sina.com's marketing department. However, Sina.com's COO Du Hong said her company will re-examine its search engine partner after its contract with Google ends.
China's business press carried the story above on Friday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
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