Google's Country Experiences: France, Germany, Japan

Case Analysis 2 – Google’s Country Experiences: France, Germany, Japan Google has run into many different issues in trying to expand itself internationally in an effort to increase its market share. Google has been viewed by many countries as a threat to their cultural values and norms. Many people feel that by allowing Google to have free reign in their countries will allow them to impose the Anglo-Saxon outlook on a variety of different topics, like history, pop-culture, and even fashion. Many European and Asian countries are combating Google a few different ways to ensure that their culture is not diluted by American society. The most popular by far has been the creation of a local search engine within the country, many times funded by the local government which controls and regulates the search engine as it sees necessary. In France, they attempted to set up a local search engine called Quaero, in conjunction with Germany in order to deter people from using Google. Germany attempted creating it’s own search engine called Theseus when the country backed out of the joint search engine with France. Even Japan launched what they deemed The Grand Voyage Project in an effort to create a proprietary search and information retrieval functions. Google’s overseas endeavors have been unsettling at best thus far. They have spent more money in foreign court the past few years that they would have liked, disputing issues like copyright infringement, trademark counterfeiting, and censorship issues. Going forward, Google must gather more information regarding a foreign market they may be interested in tapping into in the future. With the proper research and analysis, Google can avoid many of the issues it has run into the past few years.
Google in France • Google France is currently the most visited website in France, with 10.38% of all French Internet visits. • Facebook is the second most visited website in France, accounting for 6.83% of all French