Google is making plans for a comeback presence in China with a version of Google Play that will comply with all Chinese censorship requirements in order to do so.
The company famously left China in 2010 following cyber-attacks that were sourced to the Chinese Government. At the time Google vowed to end censoring Chinese search results and redirected Chinese searches through Hong Kong. But now the experts say Google has indicated that to get back into China to gain control over its operating system, it was prepared to work with Chinese censorship laws, including blocking apps that the government deems “objectionable.”
Google has said it will also assist international app developers sell their “approved” products in China and help Chinese developers distribute their apps internationally.
The experts say Google wants to make a “Google-blessed version” of Android attractive to Chinese phone makers by offering “new incentives to upgrade Android phones to the latest versions of the operating system,” though it has not yet said what these incentives will be. Google initiatives like Android One and the Android Update Alliance offered in other countries have not done very well, so the experts say it’s not clear what Google would do in China to get better results.
Famous discount Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi uses a highly customized version of Google’s Android that contains no Google products and hence makes the company no money from hundreds of millions of installs.
Sources say that another Google wish list item is to introduce Android Wear into China where there are already a lot of non-Google Android made wearables, but they are without the official licensed version of Wear which uses Google Play Services.
Google’s move into China, say the experts, could take place as soon as this Fall and would give the company a foothold in the lucrative Chinese Android marketplace, even though there would be stiff competition from local companies like Xiaomi, who are unlikely to revert to a Google-made version unless given considerable incentives.
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