Bloomberg News
Google is testing a mobile version of its search engine that would adhere to China’s strict controls over content, a person familiar with the matter said, indicating renewed interest in a market that the Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +0.47% GOOG, +0.23% unit abandoned eight years ago in protest over government censorship.
Plans for Google’s censored search product aren’t completed and it may never come to fruition, the person said. Chief among the hurdles, Google would need approval to re-enter the search market from Chinese authorities, who currently block access within the country to Google’s search engine as well as many other foreign news and social-networking sites.
Google’s Chinese search effort, which was reported earlier by the Intercept, is coming to light at a time of rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which could also complicate Google’s plans.
If the effort were to proceed, it would mark a dramatic about-face for Google that is certain to fuel controversy among human-rights advocates and many of its own employees, as well as U.S. politicians. Google abandoned its Chinese operations in 2010 to protest the country’s state-sponsored censorship and a government that Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the time described as having the “earmarks of totalitarianism.”
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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