The anarchism of Chinese Internet must be ended
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Chinese search engine giant Baidu has finally bowed to public pressure. In a brief statement issued Sunday, Baidu apologized that its now-defunct Baidu Books project offended certain writers, and promised to delete the unauthorized content from its archive in the next three days.
This latest crusade against Baidu, beginning with an open letter from several prominent Chinese writers on March 15, was actually an eruption of complaints against the Internet search monopoly holder for infringing upon users' rights.
In recent years, Baidu's business practices, such as bidding for ranking and linking to free music download sites, have received heavy criticism from both the public and business circles, but these voices seemed weak when faced with the company's monopoly. Just last week, Nasdaq-listed Baidu topped Tencent to become China's most valuable Internet company. However Baidu's success has compromised the interest of a large number of business and everyday users.
Internet companies in China had high expectations of becoming world beaters. And they do appear to be so. Baidu, Tencent and Taobao have all been lauded as homegrown heroes that have defended the Chinese market against being taken over by top international Internet brands. Their founders have also been heralded as business icons.
However, instead of upholding business morals, these Chinese Internet giants are often taking advantage of their market position.
The size of the Chinese Internet community makes this business scale possible, but unfortunately, it also gives these companies the power to ignore anything preventing them from more profit.
Two other recent high-profile cases involving top Chinese Internet companies have also raised the alarm for the sector's murky legality.
Last November, Tencent abruptly decided to invalidate the operation of 360, a competing anti-virus software, on computers that installed QQ, the most popular product of Tencent. Earlier this month, Taobao was hit when the company was found to have frauded on its Golden Supplier list with the tacit permission of senior executives.
The scandals were a heavy blow to the companies' image, and more seriously, to China's business culture. Regulation over the Chinese Internet industry is gravely insufficient, partly due to the fast expansion of business there in myriad complex ways.
Unlawful practices have become commonplace in the Chinese Internet business world. This must come to an end. A watchdog should not be a toothless tiger.
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