Google Continues Foray into China
Mark Angelo, CEO, Yorkville Advisors
When it comes to China, Google is just not giving up. Though many of the tech company’s primary products and services are not allowed in China, Google has plans to build a massive artificial intelligence research facility in Beijing.
Google’s chief scientist in the AI division, Fei-Fei Li, said, “The science of AI has no borders, neither do its benefits…”
AI may not have borders, but most of Google’s products certainly do, especially where China is concerned. The country, for reasons of nationalism, patriotism, and consumerism, has blocked YouTube and Gmail, two of Google’s biggest – and most important – products.
After being censored for years, Google walked away from China back in 2010, but the market is simply too large – some 730 million Internet users – to leave forever. As with other American companies, such as Uber and Amazon, Google has been chipping away at China’s massive business apparatus for years, trying to find a way into one of the most lucrative emerging markets on the planet.
So far, though, no good for Google. The company just isn’t really making any headway with its traditional consumer products, because they compete directly with Chinese companies the country does not want put at risk. So, Google is trying to gain a foothold in an emerging market using an emerging industry.
As with other AI promotional campaigns, Google held an event earlier this year in China that pitted “man against machine” in a series of games. The competition was part of a nearly-weeklong coming out party that announced Google’s plans to work with Chinese authorities to bring Google’s AI research to China.
In this move, Google used the age-old technique of giving the opposition something they really wanted in order to earn favorable status for what they eventually want. China has, for years, wanted to become a world leader in AI research and development.
Many industry watchers believe AI is the wave of the future. That this technology will transform the way subsequent generations live and work and play. It’s also an opportunity for China to get a jump on other countries that it might lag behind in other tech markets.
Working with Google will give China the leg up it’s looking for and, Google hopes, open other doors for the company to engage in the Chinese consumer market. Whether that happens, and when it might, is pure speculation for now, but at least they, finally, have their foot in the door.
