Google pulls the plug on translation service in China

On Monday, the US-basedtech giant indicated that they have shut down Google Translate services in mainland China “due to low usage”. However, reports have suggested that one of the few remaining services of Google in China had become inaccessible since Saturday.

“We are discontinuing Google Translate in mainland China due to low usage,” said Google in a statement. According to reports, the users from the dedicated mainland China website for Google Translate have been redirected to some generic search bar along with a notice that asks them to bookmark the Hong Kong version of the website.

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Additionally, the users are also unable to access the built-in translation on Google’s Chrome browser, said a report by the South China Morning Post citing several posts on Chinese social media. Alphabet Inc’s Google has had a contentious relationship with Beijing, in 2010, the tech giant pulled its search engine from mainland China due to the government’s strict censorship laws.

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While a number of Chinese tech companies have provided an alternative for translation apps, Google Translate reportedly had a large user base in the country. Citing data from the web analytics platform Similarweb, the SCMP reported that earlier this year in August Google Translate recorded 53.5 million visits from both desktop and mobile app combined.

(With inputs from agencies)

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