According to the latest reports from TNW, Google’s head of business for China, Dr John Liu, is stepping down from his post in the company. Liu was the head of business at Google China since 2006 but after six year long relationship he decided to part ways with the search engine giant. Here is how TNW has reported the latest development:
“Liu — who earned his doctorate from Tekniske University in Denmark — will leave in August having presided over a period of great change for Google in China, which included the Internet giant’s controversial exit from the country in 2010 following allegations that the Chinese government hacked into email accounts belonging to activists.”
Liu took charge at Google’s China office when the Mountain View-based company launched its operations in the country with its controversial China-based google.cn search-engine. The service was controversial because the Chinese government allowed Google to start its operations on the condition of censorship by the local authority.
However, after the alleged hacking of local political activists’ accounts on Google, the company declared that would review its operations in China. Therefore, shortly after that Google started redirecting all of its search traffic from Hong Kong.
It is noteworthy to mention here that even after that big shift in its search traffic, the share of Google in the Chinese market did not drop much, as it slide down only by two percent. As a result of that Google remained strong in the Chinese market with very few additional operations in both mobile ads and web services.
On this occasion, Google published a short statement, which has made it official that Liu is stepping down from his post. In addition to this, Google has also appreciated the efforts of its former business head for China by recognising his work in the official statement. Here is what Google has actually said:
“After nearly 6 years leading our China business, Dr. John Liu has decided to pursue other opportunities. Dr. Liu has been instrumental to developing Google’s business in China and we are grateful for his contributions. We will miss him and wish him the best of luck.”
The multinational company has also made it known on this occasion that the man responsible for developing its partnerships in European countries, Scott Beaumont will take up the role of Liu in China after his departure during next month, which real a quick move by the company.
Source: 9t05Google
Photo: TechinAsia