Google stops censoring search results in China

Google has stopped censoring its search results in China, ignoring warnings by the country's authorities.

The US company said its Chinese users would be redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong website.

In January, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China". 

China accused Google of violating a "written promise" it made when entering the market to abide by laws requiring it to filter its search service. 

A Chinese official was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying Google's decision to ignore the promise regarding its Chinese-language search portal Google.cn was "totally wrong". 

The White House said it was dismayed that Google and China had not been able to resolve their differences. 

US National Security spokesman Mike Hammer said: "We are disappointed that Google and the Chinese government were unable to reach an agreement that would allow Google to continue operating its search services in China on its Google.cn website." 

Chinese government officials had warned Google repeatedly that it would face consequences if it did not comply with the country's censorship rules. 

In a blog post, the company said the Chinese government had been "crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement". 

Slowdowns

Google Inc. Share Price change [-0.45%]

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said that providing "uncensored search" from Google.com.hk was "a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced - it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China". 

It said there might be some service slowdowns and delays in getting search results while it beefs up resources to handle the re-directed queries. 

"We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services," Mr Drummond wrote in the blog post. 

He added that Google would carefully monitor access and provide regular updates via a dedicated page to show what was available via its services in mainland China. 

One cause of the row was Google's revelation on 12 January that it - and more than 20 other companies - had been the victim of a cyber attack that originated inside China. 

During the attack Google lost some intellectual property and discovered that the attack was aimed at the GMail accounts of human rights activists. This attack led Google to "review the feasibility" of its Chinese operations. 

In the blog entry posted on 22 March, Google said it would maintain an R&D and sales presence in China.

It said the size of its sales team would depend on how many Chinese people can get at the Hong Kong-based site. Currently about 700 of Google's 20,000 strong workforce are based in China. 

Opportunity cost

Baidu is the market leader for online search in China

On Sunday, state media in China had attacked Google for what they described as the company's "intricate ties" with the US government.

Google provided US intelligence agencies with a record of its search engine results, Xinhua said.

While Google is the world's most popular search engine, it is a distant number two in the Chinese market, which is dominated by Baidu. 

However, because of the size and growth rate of China's internet population, any loss of business there is likely to harm Google's future growth prospects. 

Analysts said that initially Google's prospects would not be dented by shutting down Google.cn as it is responsible, at most, for 2% of its annual $24bn (£15.9bn) revenue. 

"Near-term, not that big a deal," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. "Long-term, if this stays in place, it's a negative. China is certainly a great growth opportunity." 

China operates one of the most sophisticated and wide-reaching censorship systems in the world. 

Thousands of police officers are employed to monitor web activity and many automated systems watch blogs, chat rooms and other sites to ensure that banned subjects, such as Tiananmen Square, are not discussed.

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Carlos Slim overtakes Bill Gates in world rich list

Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim has topped Forbes magazine's billionaire's list - the first time since 1994 that an American has not led the rankings.

Mr Slim's fortune rose by $18.5bn (£12.4bn) last year to $53.5bn. 

That beat Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($53bn) into second place, with US investor Warren Buffett ($43bn) third. 

In 2009 332 names left the list after a tough year, but the total number of billionaires on this year's list rose from 793 to 1,011, Forbes said. 

A spokesman for Carlos Slim refused to confirm the Forbes estimate of the Mexican tycoon's wealth, saying they did not "waste their time" on such calculations, but he welcomed the result. 

"We're pleased that he has been considered the best businessman of the world," spokesman Arturo Elias told the BBC. "It means there is trust among the investors." 

The year's biggest gainer, Brazilian mining tycoon Eike Batista, broke into the top 10 for the first time.

He came in at number seven, having boosting his wealth by $19.5bn to $27bn.

France's Bernard Arnault ($27.5bn), the man behind the world's biggest luxury goods firm LVMH, also moved back into the top 10 and number eight, increasing his fortune by $11bn to $27.5bn.

Their mounting wealth helped to push Ikea's Ingvar Kamprad and Theo Albrecht - one of the men behind Aldi - out of the top 10. 

Upturn

In a sign that the global economy could be seeing signs of improvement, the average net worth of the world's billionaires is now $3.5bn, up $500m from last year. 

Furthermore, 97 names made their debut while a record 164 returned to the list in 2010 - including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($4bn), who, aged 25, also regained the title of youngest billionaire. 

The news was a far cry from 2009 when the financial crisis took its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off the list and an average of 23% off the wealth of the remaining billionaires. 

Falling stock markets and collapsing commodity prices were blamed. Russia's ultra-rich appear to have recovered from last year's commodity-related losses, however, with 62 billionaires on the 2010 list, compared with 27 last year.

Consumer focus

In Europe, shopping dominated the money list with six of the top 10 European billionaires making their money in retail and three more in consumer products. 

Top of the list was Bernard Arnault (7) from LVMH, closely followed by Amancio Ortego of clothes retailer Zara (9), Karl Albrecht of cut-price supermarket Aldi (10), Igvar Kamprad and family (11) of Ikea and Stefan Persson (13) of discount retailer Hennes & Mauritz. 

In the UK, the sixth Duke of Westminster Gerald Grosvenor (45) remained the wealthiest Briton with a net worth of $12bn as he improved his finances by $1bn despite the UK property slump. 

Meanwhile, two Britons also made their debut - real estate investor Xiuli Hawken ($2.4bn) and hedge fund manager Alan Howard ($1.8bn). 

On the up

The improving health of the global economy meant that 55 countries were represented in the Forbes list - with Pakistan (Mian Muhammad Mansha, number 937) and Finland (Antti Herlin, number 773) adding their first billionaires. 

Strengthening stock markets and several large public offerings during the past year helped Asia close the gap with Europe. 

A total of 234 Asian billionaires were featured in the 2010 list compared with 248 from Europe. 

Russia's reversal of fortunes in the past 12 months also helped it inch up the league of cities that are home to the most billionaires after slipping to third place last year. 

In 2010, New York remained at the top of the pile with 60 ultra-rich residents, Moscow was second with 50 billionaires and London third with 32.

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U.S. to Allow Export of Web Services to Iran and Cuba

According to The New York Times, the United States Treasury Department will tomorrow give Internet services license to export consumer-aimed services like instant messaging and photo sharing to countries with which trade has previously been restricted, including Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

The United States defines these nations as “closed societies” because their governments sometimes try to restrict the free flow of information between citizens, however in many cases trade is restricted by the United States in response to those actions. This new license would allow U.S.-based Internet companies like Yahoo to export certain services that can be described as “free mass-market software,” despite trade sanctions.

The U.S. State Department and members of Congress previously recommended this move to aid efforts to open up the societies in question. The value of exporting these tools has already been established.

Last year, the State Department asked Twitter to postpone its scheduled downtime so Iranian protesters could continue to use the service. Digital communication technologies like Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and SMS text messaging were used by Iranians to organize protests and to get information to the American and European media.

After Google threatened to leave China if the country doesn’t ease up its regulation and restrictions on the Internet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech declaring the administration’s commitment to the free flow of information on the Internet. This is one example of that commitment.

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