Twitter, Google and Facebook – three of Silicon Valley’s many tech giants — are on a question to get their services unblocked in China. Their top executives have visited Beijing in recent times with hopes of giving a boost to their business prospects on the mainland, says a report from the LA Times.
Twitter, Facebook making inroads in China
Late last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Tsinghua University where he delivered a speech in Chinese. On Monday, some senior executives from Google and Twitter appeared at a technology conference in Beijing hosted by TechCrunch.
During a panel meeting on Monday, Alan Lan, head of Twitter’s online sales in Greater China, said the New China News agency is one of their clients. “During the National Day holiday in October, we helped them with a lot of their global communications,” the Twitter executive said.
Facebook and Twitter have also been aiming to help Chinese companies “go out,” thus supporting the government’s initiatives of promoting Chinese businesses globally. Several Chinese firms have their official accounts on Facebook and Twitter in both English and Chinese so as to reach out to the maximum audience inside the country and abroad as well.
Google could soon resume operations in China
At the conference, executive chairman of Alphabet/Google Eric Schmidt said, “In fact, we do hope to provide service in China, and we continue to communicate with the Chinese government. This is also why I’m here this week.” Schmidt added that the company always remained in touch with the Chinese government, and officials from China have visited Google’s offices in California in the past.
Google withdrew from the Chinese search market in 2010 due to hacking and censorship concerns, following which it moved its servers to Hong Kong. The company had 500 employees on the mainland with a prime responsibility of selling Google’s ad services to Chinese companies that seek to reach out overseas consumers.
Since its exit in 2010, Google made its first direct investment into a Chinese start-up called Mobvoi, which is an Android voice search software. The company also entered into a partnership with the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei on a new phone. While speaking to The Wall Street Journal recently, Google cofounder Sergey Brin said that selected Alphabet business units could be allowed to operate in China.
