Google said on Monday that the Google Translate service has been discontinued in mainland China due to poor use.
One of its final products in the second-largest economy in the world will no longer be produced as a result of the change.
Users are now sent to the Hong Kong version of the service through Google Translate’s dedicated page for mainland China. This, however, is inaccessible from China’s mainland.
Due to limited usage, Google Translate will no longer be available in mainland China, the company announced in a statement.
Google’s relationship with the Chinese market has been tumultuous. The Chinese government’s stringent web restrictions prompted the American technology giant to withdraw its search engine from China in 2010. The Chinese government has also essentially restricted its other services, including Google Maps and Gmail.
Due to this, regional rivals like the search engine Baidu and the social media and gaming juggernaut Tencent have taken control of many aspects of the Chinese internet, including search and translation.
These days, Google’s footprint in China is quite restricted. Smartphones and other hardware components are built in China. However, The New York Times revealed in their report from last month that Google has moved some of the manufacturing of its Pixel devices to Vietnam.
Though the Google Play Store remains inaccessible in China, the corporation is also attempting to get Chinese programmers to create apps for its Android operating system that would be made available internationally.
In 2018, Google was considering re-launching its search engine in China. However, the company finally abandoned that plan in response to criticism from both workers and lawmakers.
The ongoing tensions between the United States and China in the technology sector have put American enterprises in the crosshairs. Washington is nonetheless concerned about China’s possible access to critical technologies in industries like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
