Finally, Google China has been restored back to its original state, according to Kai-fu Lee, former Google Greater China president. Two months ago, the Chinese authorities accused the United States search engine giant of illegally spreading pornographic content and blocked local netizens from using the 2nd most popular search engine in Mainland China.
He was at a press conference on Monday, announcing his new venture with young Chinese entrepreneurs. He told reporters that his resignation had nothing to do with the row, adding that he delayed his departure to solve the crucial issue. The main reasons why it was restored was because the authorities there “recognized Google’s positive attitude” and “very good work” to eliminate pornographic content, and “therefore permitted (Google) to restore all of the services”.
In late June this year, Google China was sued by the Chinese government and stopped “keyword imagination” and “foreign language searching”. Some netizens found out that when they type a simple word for example “son”, several sensitive keywords will be displayed under the search bar, and these keywords may contain words related to sex. This feature is also known as Google Suggest. When the government started to detect this issue, they reported it to CCTV. CCTV, as the central TV media of China, exposed this problem to the public. As such, the authorities asked Google China to stop this “Keyword Imagination” feature.
In Beijing, he officially launched a business to fund Chinese technology start-ups founded by young smart entrepreneurs. Till date, he has raised over 115 million dollars, all thanks to a group of deep-pocket investors – YouTube co-founder Steve Chen and Taiwan’s electronics giant Foxconn Technology Group and Legend Group. Will China’s best coders and tech entrepreneurs flock to Lee’s new venture? Well, only time can tell…