Google said to plan AI-powered news-aggregation app along with search engine for China market
Reports of Google’s plans underline how important the China market is for US hi-tech companies, despite strict censorship hurdles
Google is developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that works like Beijing Bytedance’s popular Jinri Toutiao app, which uses artificial intelligence to tailor individualised feeds based on personal preference, according to The Information, which cited three people familiar with the project.
The news app will meet the country’s censorship laws and is in addition to a mobile search app that was reported earlier. Together, the projects are part of an initiative code-named Dragonfly, Google’s plan to re-enter the world’s biggest internet market in the near future, according to the people.
Work on the news app started last year and Google has been meeting with Chinese regulators to discuss the project, according to The Information. But progress has stalled since trade tensions between US and China escalated this year, with Google executives struggling to engage with China’s top internet regulator on the project, the report said.
The news app was to have been released before the search app, though geopolitical tensions could delay the release to next year, according to the report.
The apps are being developed at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, and in China, the report said.
Representatives for Google and Cyberspace Administration of China, the internet regulator, did not immediately reply to requests for comment sent by email and fax, respectively.
Alphabet’s Google plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites and search terms, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns and confirming an earlier report.