WHY IN NEWS?
Google is experiencing a "moral and ethical" crisis.
That's the view of hundreds of employees at the tech company, who are protesting the development of a censored search engine for interest user in China.
DRAGON FLY (SEARCH ENGINE)
Dragonfly is an Internet search engine app being prototype by Google that is designed to be compatible with China's state censorship provision.
Unlike a previous search engine designed by Google for use in China, Dragonfly would not notify users that results or search terms have been censored.
NOTES:-
Google executives have stated that Project Dragonfly is "exploratory", "in early stage" and the Google was 1'not close to launching a search product in China".
In a mid-October 2018 presentation, Google CEO Sundar Pichai discussed Dragonfly, stating, "We don't know whether we could or would do this in China but we felt it was important for us to explore."
RISKS AND REWARDS OF DRAGONFLY
Since March 2010, when Google stopped servicing China via Google.cn, China's internet user population has increased by 70%. It currently clocks in at 772 million users, but could grow to 1.4 billion users with time.
This means that, for Google, who makes most of its revenue from advertisments run on its search engines, the potential profits of re-entering the Chinese search engine market are enormous.
HOW MUCH CAN GOOGLE EARN IN CHINA?
The India unit of Google posted 30% increase in revenues in fiscal 2018, more than doubling its business over the past three years.
Google India posted a turnover of Rs. 9337.7 crore during year to March compared to Rs 7208.9 crore, while profit jumped 33% to Rs 407.2 crore.
So their revenue in China can be around 3-4 Billion Dollars.
RISE OF THE DOMESTIC CHINESE SEARCH ENGINES
Baidu is considered as Google's counterpart in China.
Sogou is a search that was established in 2004. Even though it has not posed as a rival for Baidu, it is still considered as a leader in the market.
PROJECT DRAGONFLY
The response of Google employees to the company's Dragonfly project for China gives us a glimpse of what might happen if workers had a more formal role in corporate decision making.
In their letter to executives, Google employees make four specific demands.
PROJECT DRAGONFLY
The response of Google employees to the company's Dragonfly project for China gives us a glimpse of what might happen if workers had a more formal role in corporate decision making.
In their letter to executives, Google employees make four specific demands.