In what situations will Google.cn disappear?

Have you ever thought about the possibility that Google.cn might disappear? If you are a user in mainland China, this might initially seem unbelievable to you. After all, Google has made so much effort in China and gradually forced users to switch from .com to .cn behind the scenes, seemingly doing everything possible for traffic. However, it is indeed a possibility, and the answer lies in a public letter written by the founders of Google to users and investors in 2005. There's a Chinese translation available on the Google Blackboard (Note: Reading the original English version, you will find many subtle points intentionally omitted in the Chinese version). After explaining the reasons and stance for entering the Chinese market, Google stated:

"Google will continue to provide the main domain name google.com. Moreover, if there is evidence indicating that local conditions lead to service quality below expectations, Google will terminate services under the google.cn domain."

In other words, if the situation in the Chinese market (mainly in terms of policies) becomes bad enough, Google may withdraw google.cn. You should know that once google.cn is shut down, it would essentially mean that Google has exited the Chinese market. So, could "local conditions leading to service quality below expectations" possibly happen? Of course, it can, and I personally believe that to some extent, it already has. Just as we entered 2008, many of Google's major products couldn't be accessed normally anymore. Isn't this "local conditions leading to service quality below expectations"? Before Google was established, many of its products were still accessible in China. But in recent years, we've noticed that certain departments have imposed access restrictions on an increasing number of Google's products, and Google itself also conducts self-censorship. From a user's perspective, not being able to use these products means game over, let alone talk about service quality.

So why does Google.cn still exist? The reasons might be:

1. The current situation isn't bad enough yet. In other words, it's far from Google's bottom line. For example, before "Google" or "谷歌" became filtered keywords on G@F@W -.-.

2. The duration hasn't been long enough. It might take five or ten years for Google to lose patience.

3. Google's judgment criteria are different. The "service quality" Google refers to might be the quality of localized products released in China, rather than services provided by Google globally.