Getting lots of attention right now is the recent decision on the part of Google to censor their search engine results for Google.cn, their Chinese site, to be in compliance with mandates from the Chinese government.

In my opinion, this issue cannot be looked at from a moral perspective. The Cisco High Tech Policy blog offers one reason why:

Agree or disagree with China's censorship policies, some internet in China is definitely better than no internet. They are a sovereign nation and while I may disagree with them keeping information from their citizens, that is their right under their own laws. We cannot place our U.S. or French or German or British sensibilities or values on them. Further, Google (any other company) has to comply with the local laws where they want to do business. I would also argue that in order to change a situation you disagree with (if that is your goal) it certainly helps to have a seat at the table so that your voice can be heard.

While I agree with that idea, I think a larger factor may be the fact that the Chinese market is too valuable for Google to lose. If Google does not go after the Chinese market -- a country that has more than 1 BILLION people -- that's a rather enormous opening it is leaving for itself to be disrupted.

Ultimately, it boils down to the fact that capitalism simply does not allow companies to stop expanding their growth. Failure to expand leaves room for disruption, which can ultimately kill the company -- and naturally wound those who are dependent upon its ecosystem, which in Google's case includes a lot of people.

I think the Wu Tang Clan said it best in their song "C.R.E.A.M.": cash rules everything around me. And with a billion people, the Chinese market is the ruler that Google must obey.

The question, though, is what happens when Google's own ecosystem, and the desires of its own user base, are worth more than any external market the company has not yet conquered?

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