Google has quietly set up a company inside the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, but does this augur a return to China for the search giant?
Pengji Information Technology was registered last Christmas, local media reports claim.
Google has quietly set up a company inside the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone called Pengji Information Technology, according to local media reports.
According to Thepaper.cn, Pengji Information Technology (Shanghai) Ltd. was registered on December 25, 2014. Google Ireland Holdings, Google’s European headquarters, is listed as the firm’s sole shareholder, with William Anthony Farris as its legal representative, the report added.
The scope of the company’s business includes web page searching, information technology, computer software, technology transfer consulting and computer system integration. It has a registered capital of 5 million yuan (US$780,000), according to The Paper.
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“Google keeps a low profile on purpose, and is not willing to make this public before making an official announcement of returning to China,” it quoted an industry source as saying.
The search giant pulled out of China in 2010, leading media to speculate on whether the establishment of a company in the experimental FTZ, which was launched in 2013 partly to test various economic and other reforms, betokens its imminent return.
When contacted by the South China Morning Post, Google was unavailable to comment on the issue.