Bottom line: Google has quietly resumed updates of its China mapping service in a bid to tap the booming local market for location-based services.
Google resumes China mapping updates
Are they or aren’t they? That’s the question going through everyone’s minds these days about Google’s(Nasdaq: GOOG) stealth return to China, following reports that the company has quietly re-launched its previously dormant mapping service in the market. In this case there are quite a few conflicting signals, including the one coming from Google itself, which says nothing has changed with its mapping service.
I was a bit surprised at Google’s definitive statement, since I can say with certainty that the company has indeed resumed updating its popular mapping service following a dormant period of at least a few years after shuttering its China-based search service in 2010. Last year there was similar word that Google’s map site had resumed service in China, and I went and checked the URL at the time. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s launch of a China AI lab marks the latest step in its campaign to curry favor with Beijing, which could give it a 50-50 chance of being allowed to sell its Pixel phones and open a China Google Play store in 2018.
Google’s China return like watching grass grow
Chronicling Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) slow march back to China has been a bit like watching grass grow these days. It’s been a painfully slow process, including the latest announcement that the company will open an artificial intelligence (AI) lab here in Beijing. Put more cynically, one might call this the world’s longest brown-nosing exercise in the brief history of the Internet, due to unique conditions that prompt many to say that Beijing is in some ways creating its own made-in-China 1.1 version of this medium of the 21st century.
That internet version 1.1 includes features like China’s notorious firewall that filters out sites that Beijing doesn’t like for the vast majority of the country’s more than 700 million web surfers. A corollary of that is that anyone who operates an officially-registered website inside China tacitly agrees to abide by the nation’s vague laws that require all operators to self-police their sites for sensitive content. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s purchase of HTC’s Pixel assets is a sign of no confidence in HTC’s chances of longer-term survival as an independent smartphone maker.
Google’s HTC purchase: reason for optimism or pessimism
Everyone is giving their two cents about the big new tie-up between Taiwan smartphone maker HTC (Taipei: 2498) and Google(Nasdaq: GOOG), so I figured I’d weigh in as well on this deal that has quite a few threads. From where I sit, the deal marks the latest distress sign coming from an overcrowded smartphone field here in China, even though HTC is technically based in Taiwan.
Equally or even more interesting is the question of whether Google is a white knight riding to HTC’s rescue, or rather trying to protect its own interests from what it sees as a fast-sinking ship. I tend to think the case might be the latter, which I’ll explain shortly, even though both Google and HTC would probably vehemently deny such a conclusion. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s campaign to build a China-based artificial intelligence team is at least partly designed to woo Beijing, as part of its broader effort to get permission to open a China-based Google Play app store.
Google Play edging towards China?
In the latest signal of its move back to China, Internet titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is apparently on a hiring spree in Beijing that looks aimed at building up an artificial intelligence (AI) team in the world’s largest online market. This particular move doesn’t come as a huge surprise, and seems to be part of Google’s recent obsession with the world’s biggest Internet market.
The backstory is that Google quit China seven years ago, at least for its core search business that is the backbone of its operations in other markets, due to a dispute over Beijing’s tough policies requiring all sites to self-police themselves for sensitive content. But over the last two or three years Google has had a change of heart, realizing it really can’t afford to ignore an Internet market that has 750 million users. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google will get permission from Beijing to open a Chinese version of its app Play Store later this year, most likely through a joint venture with NetEase or Tencent.
Google, NetEase talk China Play Store JV
The glacial return to China for Internet titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is making its debut in the 2017 headlines, with word that the company is in talks to open a Chinese version of its app store with online game giant NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES). That tidbit nicely sets the stage for what’s likely to be a banner year for Google and possibly US Internet rival Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) in their race to see who can be first to plant a tent pole in China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s new launch of a China-based developers site marks a partial return to the Chinese web, but its higher-profile return to the consumer market with a Chinese Google Play app store probably won’t come until next year.
Google launches China developer site
After more than a year of speculation, global search leader Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is finally back in China. Or at least sort of. The tech world is certainly buzzing about this latest development, which comes with Google’s launch of a China page for locally-based developers. For anyone who wants to look, the page itself is at developers.google.cn, and is all in English. But proving its China credentials, the page also has a QR code that lets users follow Google Developers on WeChat. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s new opening of an experience center in Shenzhen is the latest signal of a planned return to China, which could include the launch of a Google Play Store and Nexus smartphones in the market by year-end.
Google opens experience center in Shenzhen
After a few months of relative silence, global Internet titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is back in the China headlines with a new move that’s restarting talk of a return to the market after a 6-year absence. This particular China homecoming has now been in the headlines for about a year, meaning it’s not really new and would be quite a disappointment if it doesn’t happen. Still, China is a notoriously difficult place to do business, especially in sensitive high-tech areas involving the Internet, and there’s still a small chance such a homecoming plan could collapse. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Xiaomi’s rapid slide in China is unlikely to ease soon and it’s likely to fall out of the top 5 brands before year end, while Huawei’s lawsuit against Samsung reflects a new confidence with its recent rapid rise.
Xiaomi rapidly losing steam in China
New headlines are shining a spotlight on 2 of China’s best-known domestic smartphone brands, even though the fast-rising Huawei and rapidly sinking Xiaomi are moving in opposite directions. New data shows just how badly Xiaomi has slipped over the last year at home, where the former market leader is now in danger of dropping out of the top 5 following a huge decline in first quarter sales. Meantime, the same data show a continued surge for Huawei, which is showing its growing confidence by a filing a new patent lawsuit against global smartphone leader Samsung (Seoul: 005930). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A high-profile China visit by Google CEO Sundar Pichai reflects warming ties between the company and Beijing, and presages a probable launch of the Google Play app store and Nexus phones in China by the end of this year.
Google’s Pichai in high-stakes game with Beijing
In a move that looks like something from a high-stakes chess game, Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) CEO is taking advantage of the huge publicity surrounding a recent triumph of his company’s artificial intelligence (AI) to make a high-profile visit to China. Google is hardly a welcome name in the country, following its high-profile spat in 2010 over Beijing’s strict self-censorship policies that prompted it to shutter its China-based search service.
Since that blow-up, however, Google has more recently been gingerly tip-toeing back to China. Reports through much of last year indicated the company was making necessary preparations to launch a Chinese version of its Google Play app store, possibly in hopes of selling its Nexus brand of smartphones in the world’s largest mobile market. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s registration of a company in Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone is the latest incremental move in its crawl back to China, but the company will focus on apps and is unlikely to re-enter the sensitive Chinese search market.
Google searches for China opening in Shanghai
What’s becoming one of the slowest homecomings of all time has just taken another small but significant step forward, with reports that US Internet titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has formally registered a new company in a 2-year-old Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Shanghai. The move had Chinese media buzzing about an imminent return to China by Google, nearly 6 years after the company shuttered its local search service after a high-profile dispute with Beijing over censorship.
Like many of the earlier reports, this latest report looks mostly incremental and doesn’t seem to portend any imminent announcements by Google. But the reports do contain a couple of interesting developments that could hint at how the company plans to do business in the world’s largest Internet market if and when it does return. The 2 key new elements are Google’s potential choice of Shanghai for its new China base, and its registration of a new search and email services company to be run under the separate name Pengji. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s new drive to sell legal music, books and video in China stands a reasonably good chance of success, banking on consumers’ growing willingness to pay for such products if they are convenient and affordably priced.
iTunes comes to China
Following the record-breaking debut for its iPhone 6s models, tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is taking a big new risk by attempting something no one has done yet successfully: making profits from selling legal music and movies in China. The move was part of a newly announced major expansion of Apple’s online store in its second largest global market. But while Chinese consumers have shown a big willingness to pay huge premiums for iPhones, it’s far from clear they’ll do the same for movies and music that they can usually download for free.
Apple sold a record 13 million iPhone 6s models worldwide in their first weekend on sale, easily beating the previous record of 10 million for the iPhone 6 models. China was an important factor in achieving the new record, since the iPhone 6 wasn’t available here during the first weekend of its global launch due to technical reasons. Apple hasn’t given any individual country figures yet, but it’s probably safe to assume it sold at least 3 million of the new iPhones in China during their opening weekend. Read Full Post…
