Read on Twitter
Big story today from @theintercept on Google's plans to relaunch a (censored) search engine in China. Let's take a tour of Google's history in China and many attempts to get back in post-2010. Settle in for a long and winding #Chinafornia ride. Thread: https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engine-censorship/
Jan 2006: Google launches http://google.cn w/ censored search results. This great 2006 NYT Mag by @pomeranian99 for a sense of where things stood at the time. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23google.html
2006-2009: Google and Baidu battle for market share. This *epic* Baidu TV ad from then depicts Google as an ignorant white man w/ bad Chinese trying to steal Chinese women. Spoiler alert: he ends up spitting blood while the crowd chants "百度更懂中文!!"
2009 (fall) – Google had attained ~36% market share in China when it discovers major Chinese hacking attack, Operation Aurora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora The operation included hacking the Gmail of a Tibetan activist student at Stanford in my last year there: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/01/21/china-hacks-student-e-mails/
Jan 2010 – Google announces it will no longer censor search results, leading to a showdown with the Chinese government, retreat to Hong Kong, and eventual full block for most Google products.
2012 - Google Chairman Eric Schmidt tells @ForeignPolicy that he believes Chinese internet censorship will stunt its economy and the Great Firewall will (eventually) fall.
September 2015 – Multiple rumors abound that Google is close to re-entering China with a (censored) Chinese version of Google Play app store. The promised app store never materializes. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-nears-re-entry-to-mainland-china
October 2015 – Google partners w/ Chinese startup Mobvoi to offer voice search for Android Wear in China, invests in Mobvoi. https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/20/google-invests-in-chinas-mobvoi-as-it-eyes-return-to-market.html Mobvoi was founded by ex-Googlers, and I wrote about a Mobvoi smartwatch hackathon earlier that year: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/china-smartwatch-startup-hackathon-mobvoi_n_7099978.html
February 2017 – More rumors that Google Play is coming to China soon, this time through partnership with Netease (a strong candidate for the "local partner" alluded to in @theintercept story). Again, rumored app store fails to materialize. https://www.techinasia.com/google-plans-relaunch-app-store-china-late
May 2017 – Google (really @DeepMindAI) brings AlphaGo to China and defeats world Go champion Ke Jie. Match garners major attention but livestreams are blocked in China at the last minute. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/google-deepmind-alphago-go-champion-defeat.html
March 2017 – Member of NPC Standing Committee says Google Scholar could be unblocked soon. Does not happen. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2078173/google-another-step-closer-being-unblocked-china But Google Translate's app is made available in Chinese app stores (the web version has remained available in China): https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/28/google-translate-china/
December 2017 – Google opens an AI research lab in China. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/12/google-opening-an-office-focused-on-artificial-intelligence-in-china/ At the time, I wrote in @MacroPoloChina about the ethical dilemmas of doing AI research in China: https://macropolo.org/google-china-2-0-ethics-ai-engagement/
Note: December 2017 is also the time that Google CEO @sundarpichai apparently met w/ CCP Politburo standing committee member Wang Huning in Beijing, demonstrating to him how the censored search app would work. Details in original Intercept story:
January 2018 – Google invests in Chushou, a Chinese live streaming+mobile game platform. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-google-investment/google-eyes-chinese-e-sports-market-with-investment-in-chushou-idUSKBN1EU0FJ
May 2018 – Google launches file mgmt app for Android in Chinese app stores. https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/31/technology/google-in-china-files-app/ Other context: it also decides not to renew Project Maven contract under internal employee pressure and removes “Don’t Be Evil” from its Code of Conduct: https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393
June 2018 – Google makes $550m strategic investment in Chinese e-commerce platform JD. https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/17/google-550-million-jd/
July 2018 – Google launches new AI-powered drawing mini-game via WeChat. https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2155964/google-takes-another-step-chinese-market-ai-drawing-game-wechat
August 1 2018 - Story by @theintercept reveals the Dragonfly project to bring a censored search app back to China, but the fate of the project still hangs in limbo...
And that brings us up to date on the Google-China story. The new report is big, but history also shows that willingness to censor or promises of access are no guarantee anything will actually change. It's been a tortured courtship, and one I don't expect to end any time soon.
Big shout out to all the reporters whose stories populated the thread, particularly @jonrussell, whose stories have been tracking the twists and turns for years.
If you find the China-Silicon Valley tango as fascinating as I do, you can check out some of my writing on this at @MacroPoloChina: https://macropolo.org/silicon-valleys-china-paradox/ Or subscribe to my Chinafornia Newsletter here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/matt-sheehan?utm_campaign=Issue&utm_content=forwarded&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Matt+Sheehan Thread!
