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Google China Technology

China Preparing an Antitrust Investigation Into Google (reuters.com) 57

China is preparing to launch an antitrust probe into Google, looking into allegations it has leveraged the dominance of its Android mobile operating system to stifle competition, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. From the report: The case was proposed by telecommunications equipment giant Huawei last year and has been submitted by the country's top market regulator to the State Council's antitrust committee for review, they added. A decision on whether to proceed with a formal investigation may come as soon as October and could be affected by the state of China's relationship with the United States, one of the people said. The potential investigation follows a raft of actions by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to hobble Chinese tech companies, citing national security risks. This has included putting Huawei on its trade blacklist, threatening similar action for Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp and ordering TikTok owner ByteDance to divest the short-form video app.
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China Preparing an Antitrust Investigation Into Google

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  • Rich as rich gets (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:29AM (#60557374) Journal

    A dictatorship investigating for anti-trust is like Jack the Ripper investigating a woman with misaligned buttons.

    • The PRC is investigating anti-competitive behavior? A hahaha aha bwah a hahaha !(oh, I think I peed my pants a little ...)
  • Even without considering iOS, not sure that this falls under Anti-Trust. Search would seem to be a bigger issue with Google, but I guess because they play ball with the CCP, they aren't going to bring that up.

  • by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:31AM (#60557382)

    When the government of China aggressively blocked Google services from functioning in the country, Google more or less took their ball and went home. Local variants of the impacted services filled the void. Why doesn't China do the same for Android?

    I find it rather disingenuous for the Chinese government to sue Google when you consider all that was done to hamper Google's activity in their country.

    • Unlike in America, there is no rule of law in China beyond what the party says. So the courts wont stop them for being meanies if they want to punish a private company because of diplomatic tensions with another nation. China investigating Google for anti trust is of course bullshit. But it doesn't matter. Who will call them out? A bunch of randos on a tech site? They don't care. The real reason is a tit for tat with the US in a trade war. Honestly I'm surprised they even bothered to come up with a justific

      • by znrt ( 2424692 )

        Unlike in America, there is no rule of law ... Who are they trying to convince?

        if you think that in your beloved america there is somehow more "rule of law" then ... you are a prime candidate!

    • Yeah, this makes no sense to me at all. The only reason Android is in China in the first place is because Chinese companies brought it there, largely without Google's involvement. And now they're saying that Google is leveraging its dominance with Android to stifle competition? That makes no sense. To do so, Google would first have to have a presence in an adjacent market where they could leverage their dominance in China, but the Play Store is blocked in China, so it isn't alternative app stores, and Googl

      • by znrt ( 2424692 )

        Yeah, this makes no sense to me at all.

        there is a lot going on in the world that doesn't seem to make sense to many americans lately. one suggestion would be to start trying to look at things without you guys being the center of the world. flashing news, you aren't.

        once you look past the gimmicks of the furious orange monkey it's easy to spot how trade wars work out.

        • Yeah, this makes no sense to me at all.

          there is a lot going on in the world that doesn't seem to make sense to many americans lately. one suggestion would be to start trying to look at things without you guys being the center of the world. flashing news, you aren't.

          once you look past the gimmicks of the furious orange monkey it's easy to spot how trade wars work out.

          Is this an effective conversation technique for you? Mock others for their confusion while failing to explain anything? Playing the haughty, "I'm so superior" card on the basis of generalization and stereotype? I'm very glad that my travels internationally have almost entirely brought me into contact with people who act as better representatives of the rest of the world than you have here.

          But hey, I'm always willing to consider differing views and the notion that a change in perspective might provide answer

      • by ChoGGi ( 522069 )

        China is threatening to kick someone out who left of their own volition over a decade ago?

        Google has offices in China.

    • When the government of China aggressively blocked Google services from functioning in the country, Google more or less took their ball and went home. Local variants of the impacted services filled the void. Why doesn't China do the same for Android?

      I find it rather disingenuous for the Chinese government to sue Google when you consider all that was done to hamper Google's activity in their country.

      Ii's just tit-for-tat.

      Trump blocks Huawei (or whatever), China blocks Google (or whatever).

      Only an idiot would think China wouldn't respond this way eventually.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's just a preview of things to come if Trump gets back in. Maybe some motivation for Google to take a position in the election.

      It doesn't need to have basis in reality, any more than the Huawei security concerns do.

    • Iinm, it was the other way around. Google refused to comply with local laws and instead took their toys home.

  • Meanwhile (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:35AM (#60557394)

    Alibaba Group, which is like Google, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, Spotify, and half-dozen other companies combined - they are just fine. No monopoly there.

    • No monopoly there.

      Monopolies aren't illegal nor are they necessary for anti-trust violations.

      To be clear China's actions are laughable since they have no legal standing for a company that effectively doesn't operate in the country, but simply pointing to a bigger company is not a defense against targeting another company for antitrust.

      • I think you need to take a look at what Alibaba actually does. They have exclusivity deals for streaming audio, hotel reservations, and entire supply chains through ali-express. The only way to make on-line reservations at Mariott in China is through an Alibaba company. They also handle all on-line payments for the transaction.

        Now, imagine if Google did the same thing. The only way to make reservations would be through them, and they also handle all the payments. Regulator's heads would explode.

        Also, keep i

        • I think you need to take a look at what Alibaba actually does.

          I don't because Alibaba's actions don't have a thing to do with the post I was replying to which was entirely based on your misuse of the term "monopoly" to imply "anti-trust violation"

          I'm not questioning Alibaba (they are absolutely abusive, though likely because the government requested it rather than okayed it), I'm just correcting the often completely incorrect idea that a monopoly is somehow in an off itself illegal.

  • by Hasaf ( 3744357 ) on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:35AM (#60557396)
    This may not be the height of hypocrisy, but it approaches it.

    Chinas 12 largest firms are state-owned, and of its top 500 firms, the majority are state-owned.

    If trust-busting, and not yet another round of "foreigners are bad" were the goal, they could find easier targets of the trust busing fever a bit closer to home.

    Reference https://fortune.com/2015/07/22... [fortune.com]
  • by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:39AM (#60557406)

    "Do not come back here"? I mean, google left china in 2010.

    Or, perhaps the sentence will be: "do not sell Android (tm) in China or to chinese companies". So that not only Huawei, but ZTE, OPPO, Vivo, TCL, OnePlus get royally screwed abroad as well?

    Good luck with that CPC.

  • The Europeans are getting money then that can work for china to right?

    Why not apple also why we are at it?

  • China sees the writing on the wall that Trump will get a second term. This means decoupling will continue apace.

    Xi and the CCP have few options other than cyber attacks, conflicts in the south china sea or starting another pandemic.

  • I mean it's hard to hold a company accountable when they do no business in your country. I mean you could take up Google's anti-trust violations in the USA, it's quite clear that the Google Play certification for Chinese devices requiring Google's services to be bundled is illegal, the EU at least has already ruled on that. But from within China they not only have a case, if they had a case they have no means of recourse.

  • Antitrust is a capitalist term that cant be applied by china.
  • This has got to be about the export market for formerly Android smartphones. Investigation provides legitimacy, and that's automatic for anything internal.
  • Considering that China uses its national firewall to block Google services, it's very laughable that they want to investigate Google for antitrust. Android is an opensource OS. Companies are welcomed but not forced to use it. Nobody forces Samsung/Huawei/HTC to use the OS. They could have developed their own operating systems and app stores.
    • China is a country, having sovereignity to set it's own domestic rules. Google is just a company and their actions (although forced by the US government) have damaged Huawei, company from China.

      • Why is that relevant? If Google is banned in China then Google's business is no longer China's business. The Android operating system is completely outside China's jurisdiction. But to entertain YOUR point, Google took away Huawei's ability to employ its services (forcefully) because US is a country, having sovereignty and its own rules, which Google is required to follow.

        If you will entertain my point, check the article, the investigation is brought about by Huawei's influence. Huawei has been vigorous
    • China does not have a national firewall. It's more like a set of broken Internet connections.

      • If you don't understand you can simply search google for this information. China has this firewall and every Chinese person calls it "The Great Firewall".
  • ... and Google did it deliberately, though to prevent the rabid fragmentation in Android rather than to gain a monopoly as such. They progressively moved functionality out of the AOSP into GMS so that lots of things would simply not work without GMS which only was allowed with "Google Android".
    I doubt they envisioned the nut job in the oval office, but it would be great if Google somehow decided to reverse their policy.

    Of course Google still has plenty of interest in China, mostly advertising related, iinm,

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