Google is allegedly planning to re-enter the Chinese market in 2016, with February being cited as the likely month for it to happen.
Sources familiar with the plan have said that Google intends to launch a Chinese version of its Google Play app store which complies with the country's strict censorship laws. This includes not linking to the international version of the store, and locating all its data centers in the country.
This is an apparent U-turn on Google's previous stance to censorship in China, which culminated in the search engine leaving the country in 2010, and being banned by the so-called Great Firewall of China, after refusing to censor its search results.
China's internet censorship laws ban pornographic and other “offensive” content, including “the spreading of rumours”.Â
