14 DAY TRIAL // Google's Seoul offices have been raided again by the local authorities. The Korea Fair Trade Commission has been investigating Google's "abusive" behavior in the country and deemed it necessary to raid the offices a second time over the same charges.
The authorities believe Google is hiding evidence from them and hopes to find it on the company's computers. It didn't find anything the first time, or it wouldn't be coming back for a second try.
Google is accused of hindering competition in the country by making it hard or impossible for other search engines to be used on Android.
The local search engines are thus unfairly treated and are looking to the government for help.
Unfortunately, as many carrier-branded phone owners will attest, that's not true, carriers can and often do change the search engine, default apps, and many other on Android phones.
This happens on phones that are Google certified, i.e. come with the standard set of Google apps included. These Google apps, Maps, Gmail, Search and so on, are not open source and are not part of the open source Android version.
Instead, phone makers have to get licensing from Google to use them, even if they are free. In exchange Google gets some control over the phones.
The issue of Google forcing its search engine on carriers is greatly exaggerated if not entirely non-existent. Still, you could see why overzealous regulators would want to make sure this is true, given that Google dominates search around the world.
But the problem is, Google is a minor player in South Korea. Two local companies dominate search and have done so for years. But now that their position is challenged on mobile devices, they're complaining to the authorities.
One thing you have to realize about South Korea is that it is highly protective of its own companies and that local corporations are given wide liberties while regulators "turn the other way." When outside companies try to compete, they find South Korea a very tough market, as Apple and others have found.