BEIJING China without Google - a prospect that looks increasingly likely - could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. Chinas fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad.
The extent of a possible Google Inc. pullout from China in its dispute with the communist government over censorship and hacking is unclear. But on top of a local search site that Google says it may close, services that might be affected range from advertising support for Chinese companies to online entertainment.
If Google leaves, its a lose-lose scenario, instead of Google loses and others gain, said Edward Yu, president of Analysys International, a Beijing research firm.
Chinese news reports say Google is on the verge of shutting its China site, Google.cn, and has stopped censoring results. A Google spokesman, Scott Rubin, denied censorship had stopped and would not confirm whether Google.cn might close.
We have not changed our operations in China, Rubin said by phone from Googles headquarters in Mountain View, California. CEO Eric Schmidt said last week something would happen soon, and Rubin said he had no further details.
Google says it is in talks with Beijing following its Jan. 12 announcement that it no longer wants to comply with Beijings extensive Web controls. But Chinas industry minister insisted Friday the company must obey Chinese law, which appears to leave few options other than closing Google.cn, which has about 35 percent of Chinas search market.
Such a step could have repercussions for major Chinese companies as well as local Web surfers. It would deliver a windfall to local rival Baidu Inc., Chinas major search engine, with 60 percent of the market. But other companies rely on Google for search, maps and other services and might be forced to find alternatives.
China Mobile Ltd., the worlds biggest phone company by subscribers, with 527 million accounts, uses Google for mobile search and maps. Baidu offers mobile search but China Mobile passed up a partnership with it earlier after they failed to agree on terms, according to industry analysts. Millions of mobile customers might lose access to Googles Chinese-language map service.
A key issue is whether Beijing, angry and embarrassed by Googles public defiance, would allow the company to continue running other operations, including advertising and fledgling mobile phone businesses in China if Google.cn closes.
China promotes Internet use for business and education but bars access to sites run by human rights and political activists and some news outlets. Officials who defend Chinas controls by pointing to countries that bar content such as child pornography are stung that Google has drawn attention to how much more pervasive Chinese limits are.
Chinese Web surfers are blocked from seeing Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and major blog-hosting services abroad and a Google pullout would leave them increasingly isolated.
Google hopes to keep operating its Beijing research and development center, advertising sales offices and mobile phone business, according to a person familiar with the companys thinking. But the person said the company wont do that if it believes its decision to stop censoring search results will jeopardize employees in China. Industry analysts estimate Google has a work force of 700 in China.
The government says Chinese mobile phone carriers will be allowed to use Googles Android operating system but there has been no word on whether efforts to sell its own phones in China might be affected. Google postponed the launch of two phones with a major Chinese carrier due to the dispute.
Uncertainty also surrounds Googles China music portal, a free, advertising-supported service launched last year in partnership with four global music companies and 14 independent labels. Industry analysts say it has helped to undercut Chinas rampant music piracy by offering an alternative to unlicensed copying.
The music service is run by Top100.cn, a company part-owned by Google, but can be accessed only through Google.cn. Employees at Top100.cn referred questions to executives who did not immediately answer phone calls.
Without that, are we back to, Piracy wins? said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a technology market research firm. Piracy thrives because of censorship.
The biggest impact of a Google departure could lie behind the scenes, where Chinese companies, many of them small entrepreneurs, rely on its AdWords advertising service, Gmail e-mail and documents services.
Those might be disrupted if Beijing turns up Internet filters to block access to Googles sites abroad. Its U.S. site has a Chinese-language search engine but is already inaccessible due to government filters.
In an uncomfortable irony for Beijing, Google might suffer little commercial loss from a pullout while China
