Google is shutting down its translation feature in China due to low usage. “We are discontinuing Google Translate in mainland China,” Google said in a statement. According to reports, users could not access the service since Saturday.
Google Translate app and website display a generic search bar. Chinese users were redirected to Hong Kong's version of the service. TechCrunch reported that the change is affecting the translation features of apps like KOReader.
Google has had a limited presence in China due to local competitors such as Baidu and Tencent dominating the internet space. In 2010, the tech giant pulled its search engine from China due to government censorship regulations. Later, Google Maps and Gmail were also blocked.
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The tech giant made its translation service available in China in 2017 via a Chinese domain. Google also tried to reenter the Chinese market with a separate search engine and later scrapped the plan after a global backslash.