Google plans for moving out of China

Reuters reports that Google Inc announced on Tuesday that it is planning to shut down the Chinese version of the Google website (google.cn) and shut off its offices in the country of China. The google.cn website had censored content of the Itnernet searches for China.

Since 2006, Google is said to have been complying with an agreement made with the Chinese government, and as per this, Google.cn complies with local laws requiring censorship of certain items. The decision is supposedly taken after the recent hacker attack attempts on email accounts of some of the Chinese human activists. Google is also said to have plans of talking with the Chinese government and pursue them on bringing up uncensored Internet in China.

Limited Coverage of the News ?

Reports are also on that the official media has done a limited coverage of this news item. However the domestic media is reportedly exercising restraint in doing the coverage .

Investors worried ?

With this abrupt shift in strategy announcement, investors of Google are seemed to be worried about the prospects of the income and revenue generated out of Chinese operations. JP Morgan had earlier estimated that Google would generate about $600 million in revenue from China in 2010.

An estimate shows that more than 30% of the Chinese search market on Internet was controlled by Google. With this recent decision coming into effect, it  would be interesting to watch how Google tries to retain this share.