Microsoft grows a backbone
- By: The Founder [privmsg - website] On 2nd Nov 2006 In
A senior executive for Microsoft has said the firm could pull out of non-democratic countries such as China.
Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for the computer giant, said concerns over the repressive regime might force it to reconsider its business in China.
"Things are getting bad... and perhaps we have to look again at our presence there," he told a conference in Athens.
"We have to decide if the persecuting of bloggers reaches a point that it's unacceptable to do business there."
Founders Note:
Good for business? Maybe.. see they will lose any revenue from China.. but for once Microsoft looks like a leader.
- Y! MyWeb
Is Politics and Business the same beast?
I have always had mix opinions with this story. I don't fault them if they continued to do business there but I do applaud businesses which try to uphold some kind of social conscious..
It is a tough global market. Every country has its own laws, government, etc... is it wrong to impose political standards on another country in order to do business with them. Is it wrong to do business with a country which runs their society differently?
Then what does that mean with the way every country does business... certainly all countries do business with countries they don't approve of. Thats how the world has been running. Its not like the U.S. could afford to end relations with all countries in a blink of an eye... So is it wrong for Microsoft to continue in China?
I think there could be a role in companies which operate on a global scale to help unify countries instead of isolate.
That's amusing
As today I'm seeing for the first time MSNBOT crawling from their China property.
202.96.51.147 "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
202.96.51.150 "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
202.96.51.148 "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
219.142.53.19 "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
219.142.53.23 "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
Sorry, I just find the 2 events amusing on the same day.
It's a wart on Microsoft's toe
Backing off of search in China is like MS having a wart removed from their toe. If they really want to make a statement, MS should stop supplying software to China.
That is not going to happen no matter how "socailly responsible" MS wants to paint themselves.
Software in China
Since when did Microsoft or any other software developer ever make money in China?
You're obviously not familiar with the no-so-funny software industry joke:
Q: How many copies of software do you sell to China?
A: One, then they'll make their own copies.
Check out some of the agenda items for the next WTO as copyright for software, movies, etc. is a huge hot button aimed at China.