SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp (MSFT. O) has the top prospect of TikTok’s operations in the United States, the popular Chinese short-video app that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to ban for national security reasons.
An agreement would be consistent with Microsoft’s position toward China, where the company has a significant presence, other US-generation heavyweights such as Facebook Inc (FB). Alphabet Inc (GOOGL. O) Google that appears to have left China. consumer-oriented market with its combination of government restrictions.
The country accounts for more than $2 billion in annual revenue, Microsoft President Brad Smith said this year.
Microsoft employs approximately 6,000 other people in the country, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.
Its flagship Windows trading formula is widely used, profits have long been limited through piracy. In recent years, the company has grown its Azure cloud computing product, introduced in 2013 through a partnership with 21Vianet corporate on-premises knowledge facilities.
China’s cybersecurity law limits Microsoft to offering Azure software and while 21Vianet manages related knowledge centers. It is a small player in a sector governed by local suppliers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA. N), Baidu Inc (BIDU. O), Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.
Microsoft operates its Bing search engine and its social network LinkedIn in China, once once again being a small player compared to local giants.
Its maximum operation in China is probably Microsoft Research Asia, noted as a leader in synthetic intelligence (AI).
Founded in 1998 with the famous Taiwanese-American artificial intelligence scientist Kaifu Lee, who then ran Google’s workplace in China, the lab produced alumni who later became executives to TikTok Owner ByteDance, Baidu, Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) and Chinese Facial. Recognition Unicorns.
IS MICROSOFT AUTOCENSOR IN CHINA?
Bing and LinkedIn in China look like their global counterparts, however, Microsoft censors are looking for effects and content that the Chinese government considers sensitive.
At the launch of LinkedIn in China in 2014, two years before the company was acquired through Microsoft, Jeff Weiner, then CEO at the time, said that content censorship would be “necessary” for the company to grow in the country.
In 2019, lax speech advocates criticized LinkedIn’s stance on censorship after human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo said his profile was not visual in China. LinkedIn blamed an “error” and restored its visibility.
The GitHub software progression website, purchased through Microsoft in 2019, is also available in China. The site, a coding repository, used through activists in China to maintain Internet content before the government censored the source.
Microsoft deplores the widespread piracy of Windows in China for decades and has filed lawsuits and complaints, even opposing state-backed corporations to address their concerns.
His most notable fight with the government came here in 2014, when the government raided 4 Microsoft offices that were not easy to hire and other data as part of an antitrust investigation.
That same year, he asked all agencies to ban the acquisition of Windows 8 for security reasons.
Microsoft, however, released an edition of the “Chinese government” of Windows 10 after a joint venture formed in 2015 with the state-owned China Electronics Technology Corp.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has talked overwhelmingly about China in recent years. In November, he held a public assembly with Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping.
Also expired last year, Gates criticized U.S. government restrictions. The manufacturer of telecommunications devices Huawei and cited the exchange of the Windows source code with the Chinese government, which facilitated the official acceptance of the software in the country.
He praised China’s reaction to COVID-19, which earned Xi’s public thanks, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $5 million to China for COVID-19 relief.
The foundation is one of the few charities and non-governmental organizations that continue their activities in China, where it has worked with the government and educational establishments opposed to diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
Josh Horwitz reports; Editing through Christopher Cushing
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