Google has now dropped its translation service across China through the weekend. The recent move from the US-based tech giant has terminated another attempt to return to the Chinese market. However, Beijing is dedicated to maintaining more strict control of the internet throughout the country to ensure online security.

Chrome users in China are experiencing a static image of the Google search bar when they tried accessing Google Translate. Some users have experienced viewing a link to the Hong Kong-based domain of the company. Keep in mind that Google in Hong Kong is integrated and presented to the central Chinese users.

Google Translate Experienced 53.5M Hits in August in China

Meanwhile, the sudden postponement moves some Chinese applications in a bind. Techcrunch.com initially reported this discontinuation. Most Chinese users also reported issues with various programs such as KOReader (a document reader). A Google spokesperson said the low usage of Google Translate pushed the company to suspend the feature in mainland China.

The South China Morning Post also reported the low usage of the Google Translate service and its postponement. The news outlet said the Google Translate service in China experienced 53.5 million hits from mobile and desktop users in August. It also pointed out the data received from the Similarweb.com website (a web analytics platform).

Google Translate Received 719M Hits Outside China in August

The Similarweb data has indicated that Google Translate experienced 719 million hits in the same period outside the country. Google presented a Chinese mobile app version of Google Translate in 2017 as an attempt back to the Chinese market. The move brought in Chinese-American rapper MC Jin to promote the service for Chinese users.

However, users in Chinese territory can still download the app without the need for a VPN (a virtual private network). Keep in mind that a VPN offers to bypass the internet control mechanisms of a country. Google earlier said the company is hopeful that the new strategy would provide significant support to mainland Chinese users.

China has Blocked Google Search and Gmail

The recent move would enable users to discover a world without language restrictions. In 2006, Google actually presented a censored version of Google Search to the central Chinese users. But the version experienced powerful competition from multiple local rivals such as Baidu. Google said in 2010 that it would redirect all Chinese users to follow its (uncensored version) Hong Kong search engine.

The recent move to provide uncensored search stemmed from an exploit of Google and other tech companies in the US. These criminal elements and actors were allegedly linked to the Chinese government. It was the time when Beijing blocked Google’s search in Chinese territory. Since then, the country also blocked some other Google services such as Gmail.

The Dragonfly Project of Google

Google is much more focused to bring a censored search product back to China via a project Dragonfly in 2018. The Intercept news site reported that protests from Google employees and workers eventually scrambled the project. However, Google sustains an office in China to help developers and Chinese companies to place and monitor Google ads.

Last year, many western tech firms such as Yahoo, Amazon, and Airbnb stopped services in Chinese territory. Moreover, some companies have changed their offerings to follow new Chinese internet regulations. For instance, the LinkedIn platform of Microsoft terminated the social media feed from its Chinese platform last year.

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