On the 22nd of March Google announced the shutdown of the company’s Chinese site. But how did the Chinese blogosphere react? What did bloggers discuss, think, debate during the days following Google’s decision? A thorough analysis, using artificial intelligence and semantic analysis, of one million blog posts posted the days following Google’s announcement shows that the reactions were far more mixed than the general image provided by media indicates. Feelings were mixed, ranging from sympathy to outrage, and the topics discussed in mainland Chinese blogs cover anything from business consequences for Google to freedom or information and Chinese culture.

In detail, the reactions in the Chinese blogosphere fall into five broad categories. Surprisingly, neither blaming of Google nor the government are the largest topics. Instead, the most frequent topic is related to discussions about the business consequences of Google’s move. Many bloggers discuss it in detail and without strong emotions.

The five top themes are in descending order:

• Business consequences. The largest theme among Chinese bloggers is the business aspect of Google’s decision to move its China search to Hong Kong. Bloggers discuss the future prospects of Google’s rival Baidu, as well as Microsoft’s eyeing of the Chinese search market. Guesses are also made to the response of Google’s cooperation partners on the mainland.
  
  
• Google’s arrogance. The second largest theme is more emotional. Here bloggers blame the naïveté and arrogance of Google’s leadership in trying to change the laws and culture of a country. Others assert that Google is acting on behalf of the U.S. government in its effort to subdue China.
  
  
• Lack of freedom. A less frequent theme, but promoted by a vocal group of bloggers, is pointing the spotlight on the lack of free flow of information in China. To proponents of these issues, Google’s leaving is proof that Internet in China is overly controlled. Their praise of Google is mixed with resentment toward corrupt officials.
  
  
• Google’s statement. The fourth theme is more factual, related to Google’s decision in itself. However, often the initial discussion is followed by comments falling into theme two or thee above.
  
  
• The official response. The final theme is similar to the fourth, but related to the official response on Google’s action. Bloggers comment on the official response, often in combination with theme two or three above.

The themes above illustrate the width of the discussions in the Chinese blogosphere. It also shows that the climate is much more fragmented than a simple outrage over Google’s actions. Althought there are five distinct themes discussed, many bloggers fall into several categories, when they first comment on the actions of Google, then discuss the consequences and finally blame either Google or the Chinese government.

In the attached PDF, the five themes are presented in detail. In the first figure, the sizes of the bubbles indicate the relative occurrence of each theme. The word clouds show the words that characterize the different themes. The second figure show examples of translated quotes representative for each theme.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

TOMAS LARSSON or MATS LINDGREN

E-MAIL: MATS.LINDGREN@KAIROSFUTURE.COM

TELEPHONE: +46 (08) 545 225 00

About the study

The study was conducted, using the SoMe Analyzer methodology, developed by Kairos Future.

All word clouds from the images are generated using Wordle.net.