Google launched a new website in China which allows users to search for goods online more easily. The website, beta aggregation Shihui, allows people to shop by searching different categories, products, locations, and prices. The group-buying market has exploded recently for China, and there are now approximately 4,000 such services in the country.

Groupon is not in the picture, which can work as a major positive factor in Google’s new business venture. While Google is suffering in the face of Groupon in the U.S., Groupon has not been able to get a foothold in China, despite its efforts to do so, starting this year. Currently, it appears that Google has its place in the Chinese market.

To accelerate the project, Google bought several sales sites, such as Lashou, Meituan, Gaopeng (also known as Groupon China), Groupon.cn (also known as a clone) and Nuomi. Virtually every major group involved. However, a Google representative said that Google Shihui is built entirely in China and has nothing to do with the Dealmap, for now.

As Google is entering the industry according to date, it has won the early stages of brand recognition – Google China could become a very powerful asset. According to Shihui, the new site is still in the early stages of development.  Right now, the main priority is to test things out; Google wants to get traffic to their sites and develop features that guide users to the offers that are most valuable to them.

The Chinese government’s censorship has been a bit of a road block for Google. Such censorship makes it difficult to conduct business. But Google is hopeful that the Chinese government’s attention will not go to a simple search service. And even if they did, the probability of any set of results that require censorship appearing would be far less than with web searches.

Additionally, Google will begin to shift traffic from its search site in China to servers outside the mainland while other operations will remain within the country. It has been very difficult to enter to the Chinese market, therefore, Google is interested in growing their business in the China market to the best of their abilities.

Shihui Google seems to be a promising endevor, but not without up and coming competition. There are a handful of sites of its kind in China that are going strong. So, despite censorship, it seems the Chinese people have the ultimate “say” in what they want and like.

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About the author

Sara Nievas