1) Losing my shirt on GOOG stocks (actually not that much but still hurts) . . . mostly just re-evaluating my investment thesis

2) On the positive note, GOOG is trading suprisingly strong in the after market. After losing 20% in the first hour of trading it is now back in the -10% area. Given after hour trading are mostly hedge funds and professional money managers, it bodes well for GOOG . Its like the Teflon stock. . . most high flier that misses will usually lose 20-30% (eBay) but GOOG might be able to buck the trend. Of course, retail investors probably are not looking at after hour trades when they put in their MARKET sell orders overnight, so GOOG will definitely drop from the 380 range again at the bell and MAYBE slowly climb back to 380 by the end of the day tomorrow. . . we’ll see how GOOG does. . . no views/calls this time

3) Perry Wu of China Tech News writes Google Is Destined To Fail In China . . .

Yahoo (YHOO) tried many times to adapt. As far back as 1998 (or Web 0.98 Beta) when its then-VP, Heather Killen, made high-profile visits to China, the Western Internet company tried to sit at the Chinese banquet table. But Yahoo finally gave up last year when it bought a billion dollar stake in China’s Alibaba.com and then gave Alibaba the rights to run Yahoo! China. There was not even a whimper from the company as its Chinese portal was torn down and replaced with a simple search engine. Sohu (SOHU), Sina (SINA), and Netease (NTES) had finally beaten the foreign interloper.

Lycos tried too. It bought firms like Myrice.com. Netscape tried, via AOL. MSN has also been bobbling along with a few victories here and a few setbacks there–nothing much to be proud of.

All of these companies have one thing in common: they entered China to win, but left only remnants of their power after a few years’ struggle. Chinese history is filled with tales of foreigners coming to the Middle Kingdom with money, but leaving the country poor, confused and embarrassed. Ask Chris Patten.

Perry’s analysis is actually not that rigorous, BUT his attitude/tone towards GOOG is actually very indicative of the general population in China. IE. . . GOOG is not a Chinese company and there for it will not win . . . not for another other reason than they fact that “made in China” creates a higher preferrence for the end user. I’m not sure American understand how “nationalistic” the Chinese can be (sometimes to a fault), but this is certainly a marketing strategy for native companies competing with American bohemoths. GOOG conquered US purely base on its PR story (wicked smart founder, immigrants chasing the american dream, underdogs taking on giants) and a great great product (not unlike David and Jerry). The second part (product advantage) doesnt really exists anymore in China. The first part, the Chinese companies has a better story and Google is no longer the underdog that it was when Larry and Sergei first got started. . . it is just another American MNC trying to make money off the goldmine that is the Chinese economy. . . certainly not that noble and not that interesting. . . In short, in China, Google is the antagonist and not the protagonist of the story in the struggle for Chinese internet dominance.