But Google spokesperson John Pinette emphasized that Lee was departing "on the friendliest possible terms," and that he was leaving Google to pursue his investment plans rather than as the result of an internal conflict. Pinette also dismissed speculation that Lee had been forced out following an embarrassing incident in June in which Google was criticized by the government and temporarily blocked for allowing access to pornography. Google has struggled with local search leader Baidu to gain the sort of market leadership in China that it enjoys elsewhere, with only marginal success. But Lee's tenure had begun to have positive effects for Google's war with Baidu. In the six months ending in March, Google gained six percent of China's search market share in terms of revenue--mostly taken from also-ran Yahoo! China, but to a lesser degree from Baidu as well.