Google intensifies efforts on mainland
Giant introduces more products from Alphabet for bigger presence
International technology giant Google Inc is accelerating efforts to rebuild its presence in the Chinese mainland market by introducing more of its parent company’s Alphabet Inc’s business into the local market.
Alphabet’s self-driving subsidiary Waymo LLC set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai in May, according to a filing from China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
Huimo Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co, as the newly registered company is named, is located in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone with registered capital of 3.5 million yuan ($511,000). Its major businesses will include the design and testing of self-driving vehicle parts and products, supply chain and logistics consulting, and business consulting, according to public information.
Wang Min, head for Waymo’s China market businesses, said in late July at the launch ceremony of on-demand online service provider Meituan Dianping’s autonomous delivery platform that the self-driving company is planning an office in China, while the location has not been decided yet.
Wu Gansha, founder and chief executive officer of domestic self-driving solution provider UISEE, said that Waymo is confident in setting up its local research and development team in China if it enters the country. By that time, the competition for such talents will be more tense. But industry practitioners should not be disheartened, as the Chinese and overseas companies will compete fairly in the market with their own advantages.
During a visit to Silicon Valley from July 17 to 20, a delegate of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information lead by its director Chen Mingbo visited the autonomous vehicle project of Waymo, according to SMCEI’s official website.
In late February, the municipal government issued the Shanghai regulations on intelligent and connected vehicles road testing, which legislatively paved the way for autonomous car development in the city. Some Shanghaibased automakers, like SAIC Motor and NIO, have been given the green light to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. So far about 12 kilometers of the road in north Shanghai’s Jiading district are open for such trials.
Waymo began as Google’s self-driving car project in 2009 and was spun off as an independent company in late 2016. The company holds more than 25,000 autonomous miles of test drives each day, largely on complex city streets. That is on top of 2.7 billion simulated miles of road tests in 2017. At present, the company has test driven in 25 US cities.
According to a report released by Morgan Stanley last week, the market value of Waymo was estimated at over $175 billion, while the estimate was only $70 billion a year ago.
Investment bank Evercore ISI wrote in a report that the Waymo will be able to generate $1 billion in revenue before 2020 and the number is likely to hit $10 billion after 2025.