Newspaper Reports: Google Lacks License for China Service

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Google’s controversial Google.cn portal in China appears to be unlicensed, which could land the company in hot water with Chinese regulators. Readers may recall that Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have all been criticized over their dealings with China, and the Google.cn site is no exception.

The Beijing News reported on Tuesday that Google.cn, the company’s recently launched service that accommodates the China’s censorship demands, “has not obtained the ICP (Internet content provider) license needed to operate Internet content services in China.”

The Ministry of Information Industry, which regulates China’s Internet, was “concerned” and investigating the problem, the paper said. Source: Reuters

We Say: A spokesperson for Google told the paper that it shared an ICP license with a local company, Ganji.com. Apparently this is a common practice, one followed by Yahoo and eBay, for example. I’m not sure I understand all of this, as the newspaper said that despite Google’s assertions, it appeared their operations were “different” (not sure what they meant by that). They also asserted that Ganji did not appear in reports about the company’s China activities.