How close are Google and China?
Let’s put it this way… not close at all. Okay, that is not the cleverest wording, but at least you get the point. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company is nowhere close to launching a censored app for China. This is the first time we have heard a peep from Google since reports that a censored search engine was something the company may be working toward.
It could never happen… because Google may not be open to creating a censored app for China. However, they are in the “exploration stage” and are seeing if this is even doable. The website would need to comply with Chinese government censorship, which is unfortunate for those that live in China because I don’t think any of us could imagine life without Google.
As you can imagine… China represents a massive market for Google that cannot be ignored. At the same time, Google would look hypocritical agreeing to censored terms when the company advocates for free and open internet. But, then again, the amount of money at stake would get many to change their tune…