On Monday, Alphabet’s Google announced that it has discontinued its Google Translate service in mainland China due to poor usage. With the change, one of its final products in the second-largest economy in the world will no longer be produced. Users are now sent to the Hong Kong-based Google Translate website from the specific page for mainland China. This, however, is inaccessible from the mainland of China.
Due to limited usage, Google Translate will no longer be available in mainland China, the company announced in a statement. Google’s relationship with the Chinese market has been tumultuous. The Chinese government’s stringent web censorship prompted the American technology giant to withdraw its search engine from China in 2010. The Chinese government has also essentially restricted its other services, including Google Maps and Gmail.
Due to this, regional rivals like the search engine Baidu and the social media and gaming juggernaut Tencent have taken control of many aspects of the Chinese internet, including search and translation. These days, Google’s presence in China is incredibly limited. Smartphones and other hardware components are built in China. But last month, the New York Times revealed that Google had changed some production of its Pixel smartphones to Vietnam.
The company is also attempting to convince Chinese programmers to create programmes for its Android operating system that will be made available via the Google Play Store, despite the fact that it is restricted in China. Google was considering re-entering China with its search engine in 2018, but it ultimately abandoned that plan in response to criticism from both staff and politicians.
The ongoing technological disputes between the United States and China have put American enterprises in the crosshairs. Washington’s concern over China’s potential acquisition of sensitive technologies in sectors like semiconductors and artificial intelligence hasn’t subsided. American chipmaker Nvidia revealed in August that China-related sales of certain components will be prohibited by Washington.
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