Google drops China

I recently read the article “Only Google Could Leave China” from wired.com and was shocked to hear that Google is leaving. Not only is China have the largest population in the world, the country’s middle and upper class is growing and is becoming more and more connected every day. Hard to believe an established corporation would leave more than one billion potential customers. Google reportedly made more than 500 million dollars there last year but the company made over 22 billion dollars last year worldwide, so maybe it isn’t a huge lost.
Financial concerns aside, some view this as a hit to the humanitarians who relied on Google for communication. Google did censor search results after the Chinese government asked them to. Even still, Google never fully gave in to Chinese demands and was seen as a helpful to those trying to get their message to the world.
Google never had physical servers on Chinese soil that could be taken by the government, but the continued cyber attacks on user accounts and even stealing Google source code must have been to large of a risk to continue operations.