Google’s growth not dented by porn row – Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Google’s growth in China is not likely to be hurt by the recent porn brawl it had with China’s internet authorities, says analyst Shaun Rein in PC World. The US search engine got itself into hot water as it was accused of facilitating searches for porn on the internet. But advertisers might not be impressed by the row, Rein argues.

The official criticism of Google will not have a major impact on advertising sales, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

Advertisers might avoid Google if they become worried that the search engine could be shut down, but that is unlikely to happen, said Rein. Advertisers have not given signs of those concerns so far, he said….
Google’s share of the Chinese user search market is likely to continue slowly rising, though probably at the cost of its smaller rivals rather than Baidu, Rein said.

Google has a mostly white-collar, urban user base in China. Users often go to Google for English searches but stick to Baidu for searches in Chinese, said Rein.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you want to share his insights, do let us know.