Google's Problems in China

The Android Market service is unlikely to appear on the Chinese market in the near future. The “censorship issue” interferes.

At the moment, Google’s main goal in China is to launch the Android Market service, The Wall Street Journal reported the other day. The search giant has even started searching for operators who are ready to put the original app store on their phones in the local market. However, as it became known to the newspaper, all these negotiations are in the preliminary stage. So in the near future, Google will definitely not be able to launch its own market in the Chinese market.

The problem that the Android Market still does not work in China lies in the regulatory framework of the Middle Kingdom, requiring that any application pass through the hands of censors before release. This approach is completely incompatible with Google’s current policy, which allows developers to freely release their applications, which, if there is unacceptable content, of course, will be removed, but not immediately.

Chinese markets, unlike Google, go for this, however, “additional control over applications” costs them a pretty penny, so they are often forced to raise their operator share from 30 to 50%.

If the authoritarian market in China were small, perhaps Google could forget about it, but the Chinese smartphone market is the second largest in the world after the American one. Moreover, about 60% of the devices running on it are based on Android. So, if the search giant does not want to lose it completely, it needs to reconsider its policy at least with regard to China. Otherwise, this market will finally be divided between numerous local markets and pirates.