China Launches An Antitrust Probe Into Google. Heres What It Means

HONG KONG: China on Tuesday introduced a flurry of retaliatory measures towards the U.S., together with tariffs on imports of merchandise corresponding to coal, liquefied pure gasoline merchandise and crude oil, in addition to an antitrust probe into Google. It additionally positioned two different U.S. corporations on an unreliable entity record that would bar them from investing in China. 

China and Google have had a protracted and entangled relationship going again to the early 2000s. This is a take a look at Google’s historical past in China and what the antitrust probe means for the corporate: 

What’s Google’s relationship with China? 

Google launched Chinese language-language search engine google.cn in 2006. It was censored to adjust to Beijing’s legal guidelines, and in 2009, was a significant search engine in China with about 36% market share. 

In 2010, in response to a cyberattack and an rising unwillingness to adjust to censorship guidelines, Google mentioned it was now not keen to dam search outcomes and shut down its Chinese language search engine, redirecting customers to its Hong Kong website as a substitute. 

Beijing later blocked Google providers beneath its Nice Firewall censorship system, together with its e mail service Gmail, in addition to its Chrome browser and search engine, making it inaccessible to customers in mainland China. 

China sometimes blocks most Western web platforms, corresponding to Google, in addition to social media platforms together with Fb and Instagram. 

Does Google nonetheless function in China? 

Though Google providers should not accessible in China, the corporate nonetheless maintains a presence within the nation, primarily targeted on gross sales and engineering for its promoting enterprise. It additionally has staff engaged on providers together with Google Cloud and buyer options. 

Google maintains workplaces within the main Chinese language cities Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. 

Why is China investigating Google? 

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation mentioned Tuesday it was investigating Google on suspicion of violating antitrust legal guidelines. 

Whereas regulators didn’t present additional particulars, the announcement got here minutes after the ten% tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump got here into impact. What does this imply for Google? 

As there are few particulars on what precisely Google is being investigated for, the quick affect on Google operations is unclear, though its present standing is unlikely to be affected by the probe, which may takes months. Google didn’t instantly touch upon the investigation. 

Some specialists imagine that the antitrust investigation is prone to focus on Google’s Android working system for smartphones and used as a bargaining chip within the U.S.-China commerce battle. 

John Gong, a professor of economics on the College of Worldwide Enterprise and Economics, mentioned that the investigation could possibly be associated to Google’s dominance within the Android enterprise, as nearly all smartphone manufacturers other than Apple and Huawei must pay licensing charges to Google to make use of the Android system on their units. 

“Now, this time, Google is placed on the chopping board. However I believe it’s nonetheless an investigation, proper? It hasn’t reached a call but,” mentioned Gong, including, “I believe it’s very a lot negotiable.” 

Huawei developed its personal HarmonyOS working system after it was positioned on the U.S. entity record — overseas people, firms and organizations deemed a nationwide safety concern — in 2019, which prevented it from doing enterprise with U.S. corporations together with Google. 

Google has been accused of violating antitrust regulation in different international locations, together with these within the European Union, South Korea, Russia, India and Turkey, for allegedly abusing its market dominance.