Google Looks Good, But Chinese Growth Would Help

Even tough Google's (GOOG) third quarter earnings passed expectations, Q4 could be helped by China. I read over on WebProNews that China is blocking everything except Baidu.

Chinese citizens trying to access sites owned by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft aren't having much luck; instead, they're often getting redirected to Baidu.

In any event, the problem seems to have affected Google Blog Search, Microsoft Live Search, the main Yahoo site, and YouTube, at the very least. And there is, of course, no word on when or if the redirect to Baidu will be reversed.

This is the type of "who knows what China might do" action I posted last week.

Being barred from the largest population in the world has not stopped the Google machine from increasing its profit-growth rate, even while accelerating its biggest expense - payroll. Its revenue jumped 57% which also beat consensus analyst estimates.

International operations represented 48% of revenue during the third quarter, which is similar to second quarter results.

This is a firm that is doing everything right. The firm would greatly benefit and compete fairly with Baidu with an open, fair China.

Disclosure: Mr. Corn is CEO of Clear Asset Management Inc. Google (GOOG) is a holding in the Clear Large Cap Growth portfolio. Mr. Corn owns shares of (GOOG) directly through his participation in the portfolio.

Comments

[Tom B:]

Unless there's a techie solution (and I suspect there is), companies need to accept that there will be problems associated with selling into ruthless dictatorships.

2007 Oct 22 08:46 AM