Google’s Schmidt Still Chasing China Ambitions

Outgoing Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt would like to get more of Google “into China,” including by finding a local partner for Google’s Android mobile operating system.

Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
This file photo taken on April 12, 2006 shows Eric Schmidt (L), CEO of Google, Kai-Fu Lee (C), then-vice president of Google China and Johnny Chou (R), then-president of Google China applauding after completing a puzzle to change the name ‘Google’ to Chinese characters at a press conference in Beijing.

Mr. Schmidt made the comments in an interview with the BBC published Thursday.

“Over time I would hope - especially in my new role with more of an external focus - that I can try to get more of Google, appropriately and within our policies, into China,” the BBC cited Schmidt as saying. It didn’t elaborate on Schmidt’s comment about Android.

Last week, Google said co-founder Larry Page would succeed long time Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. Schmidt will become executive chairman, focusing on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships.

Schmidt’s remarks contrast with statements from Google a year ago, when it said a disputewith China over censorship and hacking might lead it to close its China offices. The dispute did lead Google to move its mainland China search service to Hong Kong.

Google’s share of revenue in China’s online search market has been sliding ever since. Google’s market share in the fourth quarter fell to 19.6% from a peak of 35.6% in the last three months of 2009, according to Beijing research firm Analysys International. Chinese rival Baidu’s market share rose to 75.5%, compared with 58.4% in the last three months of 2009, according to Analysys.

Schmidt’s remarks also point to the question of how Page will shape the company’s business in China after Schmidt steps down.

Between Schmidt, Page and Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, “I have always been the person who believes the most in expanding into China,” Schmidt told the BBC.

That aligns with remarks last year from Brin, who came to the U.S. from Russia at the age of 6 in 1979. China has “made great strides against poverty and whatnot,” Brin said. “But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling.”

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