A breaking news story has just come out that Google and Tencent, China’s biggest tech company, have agreed to share patents covering a range of products and technologies.
Tencent Holdings, Ltd., best known for its WeChat messaging app, is the fifth largest tech company worldwide. The company has been expanding its reach beyond the mainland and has recently acquired a 12 percent stake in Snap, Inc. Tencent also recently released a U.S. version of the company’s hit game, Honor of Kings. The new version, Arena of Valor, features DC superheroes Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman. Tencent has also invested in Spotify and Tesla.
Google’s re-entry into China
Google had withdrawn its search engine from China in 2010. This was due to the company’s decision to no longer follow the Chinese government’s censorship requirements. In December, Google announced that it intended to open a new artificial intelligence (AI) research center in China. The agreement should help smooth Google’s re-entry into China. The company had announced plans to bring its cloud platform to Hong Kong in 2017.
Intellectual property alliance
This last April, Google agreed to a similar patent-sharing program with Samsung, Foxconn and other Android-related business partners. Between the members of the group, they hold a collective 230,000 patents worldwide. The purpose of this patent-sharing program was to add stability to the Android platform and allow for sharing of technologies.
Another way in
Beyond paving the way for future collaboration on technology, Google is looking for ways to expand in China where many of its products, such as app store, search engine and email service, are blocked by Chinese government regulators. For the two tech firms, it’s a win-win agreement as both will gain further access into each other’s primary markets.
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