(Bloomberg) – Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said he expects China to renew the company’s newly revised application to deliver Web services in the country.
China, the world’s largest Internet market, threatened not to renew the license after disapproving of Google’s attempts to sidestep censorship rules, the company said. The timing of the decision is up to Chinese authorities, Schmidt said yesterday at an Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government,” he said.
Google disagrees with Chinese rules that require companies to limit public online access to information the government deems inappropriate. The company’s ability to provide search and other services rests on whether officials approve its application. A decision may take some time, the China Daily reported this week, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesman Wang Lijian.
The standoff with China began in January, when Google said it would stop censoring search results, violating rules.
Google’s attempt to circumvent the strictures — sending Chinese users to its unfiltered site in Hong Kong — didn’t sit well with China either. To allay the concerns, Google last month added an extra hurdle for Chinese Web surfers, directing them to a landing page that in turn pointed them to the Hong Kong site.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, rose $6.36 to $456.56 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 26 percent this year.
Wi-Fi Snafu
In the event China opts not to renew the company’s Internet license, “Google would effectively go dark in China,” Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said in a June 28 blog posting. “It’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable.”
In other remarks at a press conference in Sun Valley, Schmidt said buyers of Motorola Inc.’s new Droid X, which uses Google’s Android software, faced a one-month delay in getting the phone. Google said today that Schmidt misspoke. Droid X is on schedule and will reach stores on July 15, the company said.
Schmidt also reiterated that the company regrets recent collection of data delivered via Wi-Fi networks, moves that brought the company under regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and parts of Europe. In May, Google said it mistakenly gathered information from open wireless networks while it was capturing images of streets and houses for its Street View service, a product that lets users view photographs of an area online.
“This kind of mistake will never occur again,” Schmidt said.
Turning to the broader economy, Schmidt said the U.S. and Europe have a relatively long recovery ahead. Google plans to announce its second-quarter financial results next week.
–With assistance by Sarah Rabil in Sun Valley. Editors: Tom Giles, Nick Turner
To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net; Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

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