A Chinese software startup has become a laughing stock on Chinese social media after claiming to have developed China’s first fully homegrown browser only to be promptly exposed for copying Google.
I think it’s entirely normal for countries – especially large ones – to press the “local products” angle, and I see nothing wrong with Chinese companies and consumers trying to run with the concept. However, try not to fall flat on your face like this.
If that chap took state funds to develop an independent browser .. then did that… which some might view as a security / sovereignty issue ..
.. that chap might be wondering when the knock on the door, the tap on the shoulder will happen.
oops.
is Chrome/Chromium available to the average* Chinese web user? If it’s also included in the Google ban, then it’s not like users would ever know, right?
* by “average” I mean someone who doesn’t know about Shadowsocks or VPNs.
According to Statcounter Chrome is (like pretty much everywhere else unfortunately) by far the most used browser in China across all categories:
http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/all/china
http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/china
http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/mobile/china
http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/mobile-tablet/china
The company announced that in the latest round of fundraising it had raised a cool 250 million yuan ($36) from investors that included government agencies.
Wow, the yuan has really dropped in value.
I wonder what yuan would be worth if it were allowed to float freely…
Probably more than it does now. The central bank wants it low to keep a favourable trade balance.
Aye, but how much?
Need i say more
Edited 2018-08-17 08:15 UTC
Opera was sold to a Chinese group of investors some time ago. Why don’t they take their proprietary Presto engine that is buried, update it and remake/label it their own?
Yeah, but what do investors know about it? And also, those group of investors probably aren’t also investors in this startup.
“would come to smash the US monopoly on software.” – and yet it requires to run on an OS made by a US software company?
Running on a kernel developed by a Finnish college kid who didn’t even speak Finnish?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to develop the domestic economy by promoting homegrown businesses but the methods they employ are fundamentally unethical and extremely harmful to not just the economic well being of the west but our security as well.
Where western and developed Asian countries engage in mutually beneficial trade, China is essentially running an extortion racket where if you want to do business in the PRC you’re basically compelled into handing over trade secrets –and what you don’t give they’ll steal.
Large corporations are trading our future for short term economic gains. By far the most insidious part is this has basically created a race to the bottom where even companies that realize the long term danger are still forced to do so because they can’t compete in a market where everyone else is.
Trump could’ve had a *HUGE* win if instead of waging a trade war on friends and allies he developed a coalition of nations willing to say thanks but no thanks to their currency manipulation and extortion racket. Instead he’s blown what little political capital he had bickering with Canada and Europe. I can only hope that he doesn’t completely taint the issue of economic redress w/ China so completely that future politicians will be afraid to touch it.
Edited 2018-08-19 18:36 UTC
Just what Russia and China would want…
PS. But, say, the US also didn’t play nice (for example also ignored foreign intellectual property) when only gaining the status of world power. Apparently it’s what countries do in such situation…