Lost in the drama of the announcement that Google might pull out of China because they refuse to censor their search engine results, are the many business partnerships the Internet giant has with Chinese-based companies. Namely, Top11.cn, a site owned by the Chinese company Orca Digital Inc., and one that many look to as the answer to music piracy.
Top100.cn distributes free music, obtaining its money from advertising, thus allowing users to still obtain free music, while musicians (or at least labels) still make revenue. To date, it's main source of traffic and ad sales has come via a partnership with Google. Top100 has licensed some five million tracks in all, not only from Chinese stars, but also from the big four Western record companies. Around six million tracks a day are downloaded or streamed from the site.
Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, with the Google pull out announcement, Orca Digital has been left wondering its fate. Gary Chen, Orca Digital's Chief Executive, stated that Google has not been in touch with him since it made the announcement, although advertisers have been calling him daily. Meanwhile, Chen has been trying to take a neutral stance on the fight between Google and the Chinese government.
"I love Google, and I love China."
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