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  • Google shuts down Translate service in China

    Google shuts down Translate service in China

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    Google pulled its search engine from China in 2010 because of heavy government internet censorship. Since then, Google has had a difficult relationship with the Chinese market. The end of Google Translate in China marks a further retreat by the U.S. technology giant from the world’s second-largest economy.

    Budrul Chukrut| SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

    Alphabet’s Google on Monday said it shut down the Google Translate service in mainland China, citing low usage.

    The move marks the end of one of its last remaining products in the world’s second-largest economy.

    The dedicated mainland China website for Google Translate now redirects users to the Hong Kong version of the service. However, this is not accessible from mainland China.

    “We are discontinuing Google Translate in mainland China due to low usage,” Google said in a statement.

    Google has had a fraught relationship with the Chinese market. The U.S. technology giant pulled its search engine from China in 2010 because of strict government censorship online. Its other services — such as Google Maps and Gmail — are also effectively blocked by the Chinese government.

    As a result, local competitors such as search engine Baidu and social media and gaming giant Tencent have come to dominate the Chinese internet landscape in areas from search to translation.

    Google has a very limited presence in China these days. Some of its hardware including smartphones are made in China. But The New York Times reported last month that Google has shifted some production of its Pixel smartphones to Vietnam.

    The company is also looking to try to get Chinese developers to make apps for its Android operating system globally that will then be available via the Google Play Store, even though that’s blocked in China.

    In 2018, Google was exploring reentering China with its search engine, but ultimately scrapped that project after backlash from employees and politicians.

    American businesses have been caught in the middle of continued tensions in the technology sphere between the U.S. and China. Washington continues to fret over China’s potential access to sensitive technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

    In August, U.S. chipmaker Nvidia disclosed that Washington will restrict the company’s sales of specific components to China.

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  • Google pulls one of its few remaining services from China, ending its return to the mainland market

    Google pulls one of its few remaining services from China, ending its return to the mainland market

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    Over the weekend, Google suspended its translation service in mainland China, ending another attempt by the U.S.-based tech company to return to the Chinese market amid Beijing’s drive to more tightly control the country’s internet.

    Mainland Chinese users trying to access Google Translate in China were instead shown a static image of a generic Google search bar, and a link to the company’s Hong Kong-based domain. (Google in Hong Kong is uncensored and blocked to mainland Chinese users.)

    The sudden suspension put some Chinese applications, which relied on Google for translation, in a bind, as users reported problems with programs like document reader KOReader, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the suspension.

    A Google spokesperson told Fortune that the company had “discontinued Google Translate in mainland China due to low usage.”

    Google Translate’s China service received 53.5 million hits from desktop and mobile users combined in August, according to the South China Morning Post, citing data from web analytics platform Similarweb. Google Translate as a whole received 719 million hits over the same period outside of China, according to Similarweb data. 

    Google introduced a Chinese mobile app version of Google Translate as a foray back to the China market in 2017, bringing in Chinese-American rapper MC Jin to advertise the service to Chinese users. Users in China could download the app without using a virtual private network to evade the country’s internet controls. At the time, Google said it hoped the service would help mainland Chinese “discover a world without language barriers.”

    Google originally offered a censored version of Google Search to mainland Chinese users in 2006, but it faced strong competition from local competitors like Baidu.

    In 2010, Google said it would redirect mainland Chinese users to its (uncensored) Hong Kong search engine. The decision to offer uncensored search followed a hack of Google and other U.S. tech companies by actors allegedly connected to the Chinese government. Beijing then blocked Google search in China and has continued to block other Google services like Gmail in the years since.

    Google considered bringing a censored search product back to China in 2018 via a project reportedly called Dragonfly, according to The Intercept. Protests from Google employees ultimately scuttled the project.

    Google maintains an office in China to support developers and help Chinese companies place Google ads overseas. 

    Several Western tech companies, like Amazon, Airbnb, and Yahoo, have shut down services in China over the past year. Others have altered their offerings to comply with new internet regulations in China. Microsoft’s LinkedIn platform, for example, removed the social media feed from its China platform last year, citing “greater compliance requirements.”

    Even exercise isn’t safe. Nike suspended its popular Run Club app for Chinese users earlier this year.

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    Nicholas Gordon

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