BEIJING: It’s business as usual at Google China’s headquarters in Beijing, the company said yesterday after the announcement the US Internet giant had stopped censoring its search engine results.Dozens of journalists crowded outside the company’s offices in the Chinese capital to seek reaction following Google’s move, but security staff prevented them from entering the building.
“What I can see is that it’s business as usual,” spokeswoman Marsha Wang told AFP when asked to comment on how morale among Beijing staff had been affected by the company’s decision. Wang said she had no information about lay-offs or a possible transfer of staff to Google’s Hong Kong offices, saying only that “adjustments” could be made “according to business demand”.
Employees leaving the building were mobbed by reporters, but most made no comment. One opted to remain inside after seeing the media scrum at the door.
One Google employee, who refused to be named, said the atmosphere inside the headquarters was “normal”, before he hurried away from the pack.
Pan Yun, who said his company was one of Google’s advertising clients, said he came to the headquarters to get answers — and left unsatisfied.
“I came to ask about the situation, but they did not give me a clear answer,” he said. “I thought their response was not at all satisfactory, but we hope that they can give a reasonable explanation and resolution to their clients.”
Google announced on Monday that it had re-routed mainland users of its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn to an uncensored site in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
Its decision came just over two months after the Internet titan threatened to close its Chinese operations altogether because of censorship and cyberattacks it said originated from China.
Google has said it plans to maintain its sales, research and development teams in China, which has the world’s largest online population at 384 million. — AFP