Google Invests In China With Entrance Into eSports Streaming , II Google eyes Chinese e-sports market , II Google is helping a Chinese game streaming platform go global

 

Google's new plan regarding China has nothing to do with the search engine. It will be investing in the Chinese 

eSports streaming platform, Chushou.  ( STR/AFP | Getty Images )

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Google is one of the largest companies in the world but it's currently shut out of the second largest market in the
world: China.
The company tried to maintain a presence in this country with its search engine. However, the restrictive rules
regarding internet usage made the tech giant leave. Now, it is looking for ways to get back into it and one of the
 ways to do so is through investments.

Google Invests In eSports Startup In China

The search engine is banned in China and to get back into the country, Google invested in Chushou, a Chinese
live streaming eSports platform that specializes in mobile games. With Google's investment into the startup, its
funding is increased to $120 million.
However, the multinational company didn't say how much of Chushou it now owns or is valued at the moment.
Chushou features 8 million users and almost 250,000 live streams a day.
Apparently, China is a growing market for eSports. Google's investment is set to help the Chinese company grow
 in the international market.
eSports, as a spectator event, is growing, and Newzoo estimates that 191 million watch eSports frequently and
 another 194 million tune in occasionally. It also estimates that 42 percent of those who watch eSports do not play
 the games themselves.
Notably, Google already has a live streaming gaming service that it launched on YouTube.

Second Investment In China

It appears that trying to get back into China is a priority for Google. It is finding different ways to enter the market
 without going through the search engine route.
In 2015, Google bought a minority stake in artificial intelligence startup, Mobvoi, which is run by former Google
engineers. It uses AI to make chatbots that placed into smartphones, cars, and other devices.
Moreover, Google also sees artificial intelligence as a way to get back into China.  In December, it started an
artificial intelligence lab in the country.
Before that, Google's AI project, AlphaGo, beat Chinese Go champion and world number 1 player Ke Jie in a
Go match that was streamed live on YouTube in May. It was previously thought that it would take AI  decades to
 achieve this victory.
This Go game made international headlines but wasn't covered very much by the local Chinese media. Some
 senior officials were also offended by the victory, and it drove China to want to become a leader in AI technology.

Jie went as far as calling AlphaGo "a god of Go." In 2016, AlphaGo defeated high-ranked South Korean Go
master Lee Se-dol.
Go is a game that is thousands of years old and is considered extremely complex. Google says there are more
moves in the game than there are atoms in the universe.

Alphabet Inc's Google has joined an investment in Chinese live-stream mobile game platform Chushou that 

brings the startup's total funding to $120 million, as the US firm eyes new inroads to China where its search

 engine is blocked.

Founded in 2015, Chushou is an online e-sports platform where users can live stream their mobile phone 

games. The service has roughly 8 million streamers and 250,000 live streams a day, said the companies in a 

statement.

Google will help the Chinese firm expand its services to target more overseas viewers, it said. Live stream 

gaming platforms are a popular form of e-sports in China, part of a growing industry that involves competitive

  game play viewed by spectators. Google's YouTube launched a specialised service for live stream gamers in 

2015, capturing a large chunk of the global market.

The companies did not reveal the size of Google's stake or the valuation of Chushou after the round. It is 

Google's second investment in a Chinese startup in recent years, as the search engine giant looks for new 

avenues into the Chinese market where its flagship search engine has been blocked by censorship authorities

 since 2012. The US firm took a minority stake in Beijing-based AI startup Mobvoi in 2015 as part of a $75 million

 fundraising round. Google's inability to access China's large population of young, tech-savvy internet users 

poses a challenge for the firm whose search engine has expanded to become the world's largest and most 

ubiquitous.

Last year the firm began targeting China as a potential market to expand its AI offerings. In December, it launched

 an artificial intelligence lab in China, and in May it held a Go match between its AI project Alpha Go and Chinese 

Go champion Ke Jie. The match was highly publicised in international media but was not widely covered in local 

media.

Last month, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai also spoke at a high-profile event in China organised by the

 Cyberspace Administration of China, which oversees internet censorship in the country.

"Chushou has built an impressive platform, with a dedicated and quickly growing base of content creators and 

consumers, and smart expansion plans," said Frank Lin, who oversees corporate development for Google in 

North Asia.

Google’s search engine might be banned in China, but it’s been finding more and more ways to establish its
presence in the country. Its latest effort is leading a $120 million investment in Chushou, a Chinese online
e-sports platform that specializes in mobile game livestreams. The website is already pretty big, with 8 million
users and as many as 250,000 livestreams a day, and it’s unclear what percentage of total funding came from
Google. According to CNBC, though, the big G will help the platform grow even bigger, more international, in
order to make it look more inviting to potential users outside China.
So far, the number of mobile gamers in China is almost double the number of people in the US, so Chushou
definitely has the potential to become a proper Twitch competitor. Livestreaming is immensely popular in China,
 as well — Chushou rival Douyu TV, for instance, says it has around 30 million daily active users. That makes
Google’s new ally look tiny in comparison.
Back in 2015, Google also joined a $75 million funding round for Beijing-based AI startup Mobvoi. It’s a small
company, but it’s already released an Assistant-capable smart home device and a decent $100 Android Wear smartwatch. Last year, Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo competed against top Chinese Go players in the province of Zhejiang, and the company also opened an AI lab in Beijing.
Google Invests In China With Entrance Into eSports Streaming , II Google eyes Chinese e-sports market
, II Google is helping a Chinese game streaming platform go global
Google‬, ‪China‬, ‪Alphabet Inc.