Back in 2010, Google completely shut down its operating business in China but with new structural re-organisation of the technology giant, its parent company Alphabet may just enter the ‘Dragon-Land’.
Sergey Brin, president of Alphabet, said in a newspaper interview that with the new organisational structure in place, this would allow each unit autonomy on the matter. “Each Alphabet business can make its own decisions on which countries to operate in,” Brin told the Wall Street Journal. “We already do quite a lot of business in China, although it has not been an easy country for us.”
China has been a difficult market to do business for companies outside of the country and with the strict censorship rules and the recent attack on Gmail users, the company ended most of its operations in the country five years ago.
It does sell ads to businesses in China, but Google services are not officially available in the country.
Earlier this month, Google bought a stake in Chinese artificial intelligence startup Mobvoi which is aiming to develop wearable smart technologies. The two firms previously announced an agreement earlier this year to bring the Google Android Wear operating system to China.
Google in August announced its plan to reshape under the newly formed parent company. The move gives the tech giant more ability to focus on its core business, while offering startup-like flexibility to long-shot, trailblazing projects.
Alphabet will be the corporate parent, overseeing the Google unit for search and a handful of other operating firms created for projects in health, Internet delivery, investment and research.
Also, in other developments a new report emerged from The Wall Street Journal, Google was merging its mobile OS Android and desktop OS Chrome into a unified OS which will be out by 2017.
Under the leadership of Sundar Pichai, the new CEO of Google after the restructure of the company into Alphabet, Google has been very vocal about the new developments. A development like this would have come from the company itself. Google co-founder Sergey Brin himself said in 2009 Chrome OS and Android would likely converge over time.
Other reports also suggest that, Google is very committed to keep the Chrome OS alive and kicking in the near future.