A number of entrepreneurs have dismissed Google’s recent threat to halt operations in China.
Indeed, the Mountain View-based search company recently expressed its extreme displeasure over Beijing’s Internet censorship policies and accused Chinese hackers of launching a “highly sophisticated” attack against its infrastructure.
“Google is trying to escalate a business problem into a political issue,” Jess Wu, Venture Partner at The Chinese Founders Fund, told Kim-Mai Cutler of VentureBeat.
“They want an angle so the US government can get involved. They want nation-to-nation talks. Since no dot-coms have really succeeded in China, I actually think they’ve done a good job reaching at least 20 percent market share.”
Wu explained that he had been discussing the issue with his friends, many of whom said “It’s OK. It’s no big deal.”
“They all say, ‘Just quit. We don’t care.’ The Chinese government will never back down on the censorship issue. If they do, their power will weaken and they will fall.”
An anonymous source at a Hangzhou-based venture firm expressed similar sentiments.
“China doesn’t care. The government is too powerful. Google has made all kinds of sacrifices in the short-term. They’ll back off for awhile, and then they’ll come back again.”
