Google and China – Friends at Last?

It’s good news for Google, as the Chinese Government have renewed their licence for another year.

The relationship between the Chinese Government and the Internet giants went sour in 2010 when Google started to redirect Chinese users to its Hong Kong website due to concerns over censorship and hacking. 

China regulates content on the internet through licensing and oversight of internet companies.  This means sites such as Google's YouTube, Facebook and microblogging site Twitter are amongst the list of websites that are popular in the international online community but censored in China. 

Domestic Chinese internet companies, such as search firm Baidu, are the market leaders in China.  That is unlikely to change despite the renewed license secured by Google, but it does imply that all is not lost in China for the Internet Giants.