Google to Stop Redirecting Chinese Search Traffic to Hong Kong Site

Posted 06/29/2010 at 6:35am | by Pulkit Chandna

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Google will stop redirecting Chinese users to its uncensored Hong Kong site as it looks to maneuver itself into a more conciliatory posture. Its Internet Content Provider license is scheduled to come up for renewal on Wednesday. The Chinese authorities have warned Google that it will be denied a fresh license if it continues redirecting Chinese search traffic to its Hong Kong site. Unwilling to sacrifice its  presence in the most populous internet market, the company has opted for an alternative to automatic redirection. That said, it won't be rolling back the clock to the uncomplicated days of censored search results any time soon.

Instead, Chinese users will soon begin seeing a landing page on Google.cn that links to its Hong Kong site, leaving the choice of clicking through to the uncensored search site with the user. In fact, it has already begun directing some Chinese users to the new landing page. The company has applied for a new license “based on this approach.”

“Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn—so Google would effectively go dark in China,” David Drummond, Google's Chief Legal Officer, wrote in a blog post  Monday. “That’s a prospect dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives, and instead of automatically redirecting all our users, we have started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk.”

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