Android in China

The lure of the mobile kingdom

Re-entering China will be hard for Google, but it may still try

来源：Economist

翻译：Z.K.

Sep 12th 2015 | From the print edition

“IT’S all speculation.” Google’s reaction to reports that it is in talks with officials and handset-makers to launch an app store in China is no surprise. Such a move would be a high-profile reversal: in 2010 the firm shut down most of its Chinese operations or shifted them to Hong Kong in reaction to government demands to censor online-search results. Even so, on September 8th the firm did take a tentative step back into the country: Motorola, its former handset unit (now owned by Lenovo, a Chinese firm), launched the first smartwatch supported by Google and powered by its operating system, Android, that understands Chinese voice commands.

“这完全是猜测。”面对媒体关于谷歌正在和政府官员以及手机制造商谈判，希望在中国推出APP商店的报道，谷歌的回应一点儿也不奇怪。这样的举动是一个备受瞩目的逆转：2010年，面对政府审查网上搜索结果的要求，谷歌关闭了其在中国的大部分服务，或者转移至香港作为回应。然而，今年9月8号，该公司做了一些试探，希望重新回到中国。谷歌的前手机部门，摩托罗拉(现在归中国联想公司所有)，推出了第一款谷歌支持的智能手表，操作系统为安卓系统，可以识别中文语音指令。

It would be remarkable if a company like Google (whose parent firm’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, is a director of the Economist Group) were not carefully considering the pros and cons of going back into China in a bigger way. Although its growth has slowed, the country is now the world’s biggest mobile-device market, with more than 400m smartphones expected to be sold there this year. Having no presence in China is a serious handicap in the battle with other tech giants, notably Apple.

如果像谷歌这样的公司(谷歌母公司的主席Eric Schmidt是经济学人集团的董事。)没有长远地考虑回到中国的利弊，这将是不可思议的。虽然中国的发展速度减慢了，但是它现在是世界上最大的移动设备市场，预计今年要销售超过4亿台智能手机。如果谷歌没有在中国与其他科技公司，特别是苹果，争夺市场，将是一个严重的失策。

Google’s absence from China is threatening its control of Android. Elsewhere, the operating system usually comes bundled with the firm’s mobile services, such as the app store and digital maps. Handset-makers which want Google’s stamp of approval have to install these services on their devices and present them prominently. In China, since those Google services are unavailable, manufacturers use open-source versions of Android, which they can adapt as they see fit. As a result, the country’s mobile market is much more fragmented, but also more competitive and innovative. It boasts hundreds of app stores. Handset-makers, in particular Xiaomi, differentiate their products by, among other things, integrating them with local mobile services. Messaging apps such as WeChat have evolved into rival platforms which host many services similar to Google’s.

谷歌缺席中国市场对其在安卓市场的统治产生了威胁。在其他地区，操作系统通常捆绑了该公司的移动服务，例如APP商店和数字地图。希望得到谷歌审批盖章的公司必须在他们的设备上安装这些服务，并且放在显眼的位置。在中国，由于谷歌的这些服务都不能使用，手机制造商使用开源的安卓版本，他们可以适应他们认为合适的。结果是，中国的手机市场非常分散，但是更具有竞争性和创新性。中国产生了上百个APP商店。手机制造商，特别是小米，通过与当地移动服务的整合来与其他产品区分开来。通讯APP，比如微信，拥有许多与谷歌类似的服务，现在已经成为了谷歌的竞争对手。

Not only are all new Android phones sold in China powered by a version of the software which is not certified by Google; the Chinese model is also now spreading to other developing countries, in particular India. Xiaomi, for instance, has big plans there. Teaming up with a big Chinese handset-maker, such as Huawei or ZTE, could help Google to stem the non-Google Android tide—not just in China, but everywhere else.

不仅仅是在中国出售的新的安卓手机使用的是未经谷歌授权的软件版本，中国的模式现在正在向其他的发展中国家传播，尤其是印度。比如说小米，在印度有很大的计划。与中国的手机大制造商联手，比如华为或中兴，可以帮助谷歌遏制未经谷歌授权的安卓的发展浪潮，不仅仅是在中国，而是在所有的地区。

Yet becoming a force in China’s mobile market would be a struggle—for the same reason Microsoft has failed to make it big in smartphones, despite spending billions. It is very hard to establish a mobile ecosystem of developers and handset-makers in a market where other firms—not just Xiaomi, but Baidu, Tencent (which operates WeChat) and others—are entrenched.

然而，要想在中国手机市场分一杯羹，注定将是一场战争。原因和微软一样，微软已经失败了，尽管花了数亿美元，微软还是没能在中国智能手机市场做大。在一个不仅仅是小米，还有百度，腾讯(微信的运营公司)及其他公司都已经根深蒂固的市场建立一个开发者和手机制造商之间的移动生态系统，是相当困难的。

There is still the small matter of reaching an accord with the Chinese government. According to The Information, the website that first reported Google’s putative app-store plans, the firm would block apps deemed objectionable and limit certain features, such as location information. Even then, the government might prefer to keep Google out of China—after all, its absence has been a boon for local champions. “We are open to newer approaches. We’ll have to wait and see,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s new chief executive, said when asked about China recently. The firm whose motto is “Don’t be evil” may be unable to resist returning to a country that is no more virtuous than when it left.

还有一件小事是必须与中国政府达成协议。The Information网站第一个报道了谷歌的APP商店计划，根据该网站的报道，谷歌将会屏蔽那些被认为是讨厌的APP并且将限制某些功能，比如说位置信息功能。即便如此，政府可能更愿意谷歌退出中国，毕竟，它的缺席一直是国内顶尖互联网公司的福音。谷歌新任首席执行官Sundar Pichai在被问及中国问题时表示，“我们对新的途径保持开放，不得不等待和观望”。这个以“不做恶”为信条的公司可能没法抵御回归中国巨大市场的诱惑，尽管与它离开的那个时候相比，这个国家并没有什么改善。