SEVEN former advertising resellers for Google China in east China yesterday demanded compensation of US$6.5 million after the world's No. 1 online search service provider terminated all business connections with the firms.

Google offered less than US$2 million to the resellers, including US$800,000 for commissions and other fees, which those companies said, in a public statement, should have already been paid.

Marsha Wang, Google China's spokesperson, didn't answer phone calls yesterday.

The resellers demanded compensation for asset investment, employee training and other costs.

"We lost authorization from Google so now we have to gain back what we should have," the resellers said in the statement.

Google transferred some of the resellers' clients to five companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which was "unfair" to them and their clients, the resellers said.

In September, Google gave the resellers one month's notice of its decision to terminate the contracts, with the cancelation due to take effect on October 27.

Both sides then failed to negotiate a new deal.

In an earlier statement, Google said it is "actively seeking new resellers."

The seven resellers include Hangzhou eCentral, Wenzhou Zhongzi Futou Technology and Ningbo 5ENET Technology.

The resellers also alleged that Wang Xinyu, Google China's senior executive for distribution channels, had abused his position for personal gain, causing the seven firms to lose their status.

In the statement, they claimed Wang received a car from a Beijing-based Google ad reseller and demanded a 55 percent stake in the company.

The seven firms had more than 10,000 customers and provided about 40 percent of Google China's ad income.

The US-based search giant is losing market share on the mainland to rivals, including Baidu.com Inc.