China is chock-full of Android smartphones and not the big names you and I all know. Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei, Cubot, Legoo and many more sell tons of Android devices in China and the surrounding areas. So it makes sense that Google would love to create a Google Play Store China. The only problem is, Google hasn’t been in China for five years after running into the Chinese government’s broad censorship policies. Now a new report claims that Google is indeed trying to negotiate its way back into China and Chinese smartphones. The only problem is, Google is going to have to play ball with the Chinese government.
The report indicates that Google is, or will agree to, censoring its Play Store by blocking apps that the Chinese government deems inappropriate. Now to be clear, these aren’t just apps of possible questionable morality, but they could be just about any app the government says it doesn’t want the Chinese people to see — censorship in its purest form. It’s somewhat surprising that Google would be negotiating such terms, though in the end, money is what most companies are after and the amount of money China would generate for Google is huge.
If green-lighted, the new Play Store will only work on devices running Android Marshmallow and the app must comply with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requirements. The report also states that Google plans on extending broader support for Android Wear devices in China.
This is very interesting and we would love your voice in the conversation. Should Google bend to Chinese laws concerning censorship? Does censoring content for profit keep to a dedication to an open and free Internet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Google-plans-to-re-enter-China-this-year-Report/articleshow/48834849.cms” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Time Of India[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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