China launches antitrust investigation of Google, details pending

On Tuesday, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced the launch of an investigation of Google for suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly laws. SAMR has not specified which particular actions by Google are under scrutiny. Google has not operated in mainland China since March 2010 due to issues related to information censorship.

Since Google’s withdrawal, Baidu took most of its market share in mainland China. Google’s advertising business, cloud computing services, and GMS (Google Mobile Services) within the Android system — including the GMS framework, Google Play Store, Chrome browser, Google Pay, Maps, and YouTube — are currently unavailable for direct use or service in mainland China. [ SAMR, in Chinese ] Related.