China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced it is launching an anti-monopoly investigation into Google on February 4.
The SAMR statement said that Google has allegedly violated China’s Anti-Monopoly Law but it did not reveal the specific violations.
Google released a Chinese version of its search engine, google.cn, in 2006, although it exited the Chinese mainland in 2010 for not screening out illegal information based on Chinese laws, according to Chinese authorities. But the internet giant maintains other businesses in China, including Google Ads, cloud computing, app application and services and AI research.
Analysts believe that the alleged monopoly may refer to Google’s Android system which dominates most Chinese mobile phone products.
In October 2024, Huawei, which is not allowed to use Android services provided by Google due to US tech restrictions, released its own operating system, HarmonyOS 5.0.
Media reports said that other countries and regions, such as the US and the EU, have also launched anti-monopoly investigations into Google.
Google has not yet issued an official response to China’s investigation.
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