Wednesday, March 25, 2009

China's Youtube Ban & Its Future Smartphone Market

By now, you've probably heard about the Tibet torture video on Youtube blocked by China. Today, the Chinese government claimed the video was a fake. As a result, China's receiving widespread criticism for its oppresion of free speech, but we should also consider the implications for tech corporations and developers.

Remember the problems Apple faced last month when According to Interfax China rejected Apple's iPhone plan because they didn't wan't Apple  selling apps directly to China Mobile Limited (NYSE: CHL) customers? (Emphasis on "Limited")

Imagine  yourself as the CEO of  a Tech company who wants to tap into  China's expanding 3G market , but why bother wasting your V.C. and R.D. on a nation that may block user access to you for any reason, at any time? In my opinion, China's erratic behavior could overshadow the potential  market of 700 million new mobile users.

Stan Schroeder, writer for Mashable, made a great point in his post today:

One has to wonder how effective these bans are, since tools like Twitter make it incredibly easy for people to spread the news about incidents like this one. Proving that a video is fake would probably be a much better tactic than banning a site viewed by millions of people every day, and then claiming you’re not afraid of the Internet; it just doesn’t hold water.

Posted By Matt O'Hern at 10:15 AM
Permanent Link: China's Youtube Ban & Its Future Smartphone Market | Comments (2)

(2) Comments on China's Youtube Ban & Its Future Smartphone Market

Too late. China is already the biggest mobile phone market on earth.

Also, why don't you take the Chinese government to task and analyze the video in question to see if is fake before you criticize them for blocking it?

Comments by bobdoe : Friday, March 27, 2009 at 03:02 PM

Let's be realistic. The fact is that the market is so huge that companies find ways to operate, and are still able to make money here in China. Certainly it is more difficult to do so with the government's unpredictably and with the relatively low degree to which outcomes in China are determined by rule of law (rather than rule of ideology), but it doesn't mean that the big players will stay away, just that they have to spend more time, energy and care to crafting an operation which can be commercially successful.

Comments by MR : Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 11:58 AM

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