Someone estimated this week that despite being blocked, Twitter still has between 26,000 and 30,000 active users in mainland China.
When Google announced its presence in China was being deeply reconsidered, blogger Dupola began conducting a survey on Twitter on people's views regarding the possible departure of Google from mainland China. The survey is still underway, but Dupola has just released a summary of the results received as of January 15:
Note: Aside from “You identify as…?”, all other questions are multiple choice, which might explain why the ratio looks a little off. The format for results is: responses – tallies – chart.
You see this move by Google as:
Upholding its commitment of “don't be evil” – 384
Failure of its commercial strategy, leaving China defeated – 44
Promotional gimmick – 9
No idea – 67
如 Google 退出中国,你将会…?
用百度等国货 — 24
用Bing/Yahoo等外国货 — 73
翻墙 Google — 397
呼吁中国政府放宽审查,呼吁Google重返中国 — 206
If Google withdraws from China, you will…
Use Baidu and other domestic services – 24
Use Bing/Yahoo and other foreign services – 73
Circumvent censorship and use Google.com – 397
Call on the Chinese government to relax censorship and call for Google to return to China – 206
In your view, should the Chinese government take responsibility for this?
Obviously it should take full responsibility – 373
Hard to say, Google might not have been forceful enough or able to communicate well – 82
Of course not, the Chinese government has no responsibility for this – 5
What impact do you feel this will have on other foreign enterprises operating in China?
None whatsoever, things will continue as they were – 144
They will uphold their bottom line business ethics – 123
They will review their moral integrity and make efforts to enforce it – 211
They will simply withdraw from China – 73
What impact do you feel this will have on Chinese enterprises?
Lack of awareness, things will continue as they were – 219
No impact, things will continue as they were, in addition they will despise Google headquarters – 106
They will review their moral integrity and make efforts to enforce it – 83
They are aware and making similar efforts, struggling to survive – 140
Dupola goes on to point out that while Twitter users only comprise a fragment of China's online population and this survey only reflects a portion of those, it is better than the alternative of nothing.
Regarding the survey, Twitter user @xdp1999 comments:
这个统计结果提示在互联网上人们趋向于与自己观点相近的群体。
These results show that Internet users as a group tend to stick with others who share similar viewpoints.
For more views on Google, see Key's post at ChinaHush, ‘Chinese netizens say goodbye to Google with Google doodles’ “How happy we are. To have friends come from afar!”- Confucius