Forensic Accounting in Market Expansion: Google and the Chinese Market

Abstract

The current reflection is about a new roadmap that the American giant, Google, Inc must follow to reenter successfully the Chinese market by using tools like forensic accounting, audit techniques and other relevant initiatives related to better transparency of business transactions. In order to achieve this, the piece develops the history between Google Inc, and China, what went wrong, and other issues related to the breakdown. On January 25, 2006, the American company Google, Inc. announced that it would provide access to the Internet in China through a new portal named Google.cn. At the same time, Google executives agreed to censor all search results which included content considered objectionable by the Chinese government. With a population of 1.3 billion and a growing economy, China represents an enormously important market for the future of U.S. companies. The number of Internet users in the country has grown substantially over the past few years, and is currently estimated to have reached 111 million regular users. China, in fact, is now ranked as the second largest Internet market in the world. China's economy has grown consistently over the last 30 years at unprecedented rates, which has made it one of the most sought-after venues for investment by multinational corporations. With this, more Chinese have the means to purchase Internet access and devices. At the same time, Google has grown into one of the largest multinational companies in the world, and entered China in the early part of 21st century seeking to continue its growth. Rather than finding success, Google faced an array of problems. In fact, the Chinese government, however, offers all Internet search providers a difficult choice: either censor results or do not do business in China. With the introduction of Google.cn, Chinese Internet users could access the same search engine with a speed similar to that of Google.com in the United States. Instead of the Chinese government filtering search results, Google now routes the inquiry through their own servers and removes any officially banned content. Search results are typically returned within only a fraction of a second. Although Chinese users would have previously received the same limited results, Google had no role in the actual censorship of information until the debut of Google.cn.