If Google produced iron ore as well as providing an internet search engine, it really would have been conflicted. Even as it was, the decision to “pull out” of China (all the way to Hong Kong) was finely balanced. Google decided that its brand, which depends on its image as a champion of liberalism, was worth more than a slice of China's still-nascent online advertising market. That judgment became easier as Beijing grew more heavy-handed in policing the internet and as Chinese hackers – with or without the authorities' blessing – grew more adept at tunnelling into Google's databases.
如果谷歌(Google)除了提供互聯(lián)網(wǎng)搜索引擎，還生產(chǎn)鐵礦石，那么它真的會陷入內(nèi)心的掙扎。即使像現(xiàn)在這樣，“退出”中國（一路退到香港）的決定也經(jīng)過了精巧的權(quán)衡。谷歌得出結(jié)論認為，其品牌靠的是自己擁護自由主義的形象，而在中國仍處于襁褓中的在線廣告市場的那一點份額，是不值得犧牲自己的品牌價值的。隨著中國政府對互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的管制越來越嚴厲，而中國黑客（不管是否得到了當(dāng)局的支持）侵入谷歌的數(shù)據(jù)庫越來越在行，退出的決定就更容易做出了。