Many Western multinationals, like Google, have embraced China and chosen to comply with onerous restrictions and censorship. Wordpress, a popular blogging tool, has not. Matt Mullenweg, the 23-year-old founder, explains why:
We had a bigger problem in China. It set the moral compass for the company. About a quarter of our traffic was coming from China. Overnight it disappeared. For a young company, that’s a big deal - it was a million pages a day. We found out if we were willing to forbid certain words, track people and give up their information if asked, we could be turned back on. It was tough. We decided that being there under those circumstances isn’t worth it - we’d rather not be there. Does that mean WordPress is still blocked in China? Yes, still blocked two years later.
It’s an admirable stance.
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