Google's caught in Xi Jinping pong as US trade war escalates

The search monopoly just can't get a break as more and more of the world turns on it for hoovering up digital advertising's billions...

After a 25-year relationship that has ping-ponged from love to hacking to antitrust, China has launched a probe accusing Google of anticompetitive conduct.

Way back in 2010, Google pulled its search engine out of China after a cyberattack and over demands it censored results. Kudos.

Only Google didn’t really leave. Its ad business remained and has been growing 60 per cent YOY to be worth billions today.

It has more than 700 staff there servicing ads for Chinese firms like Temu, and Alibaba, which are then pinged over the bamboo curtain to global consumers.

That’s what China is going after. It knows a chunk of Google’s earnings are exposed, and it is useful leverage in the simmering trade war.

Days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Chinese regulators turned up at Google’s Beijing office and demanded paperwork, the FT reports.

The White House’s imposition of a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports yesterday proved to be a trigger.

And now, Big Tech is again in the crosshairs of an East/West proxy war. This is becoming a recurring theme.

If you’re in media, tech, or an investor, you need to keep tabs…

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The TL;DR on the trade war is that America doesn’t have enough money, and imports more than it exports. That means debt is rising.

China on the other hand, exports more than it brings in, has a faster growing economy, and a billion people eager to work.

That doesn’t fit the America First agenda, so… tariffs. Here’s The Guardian’s take.

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That’s bad news and yet another headache for Google, which is already under legal assault from all angles; antitrust, class actions, and more on the way…

A siren will have also gone off at Apple and Meta this morning, as they are both hugely exposed in China too.

These are my reports on both…