According to The Information, Google will sell its own hardware devices, such as smart speakers, 
on JD.COM platform after completing its investment of 550 million U.S. dollars. Google's JD 
deal has been in the works since November. 




The official announcement on Monday only noted how Google would leverage its “technology 
strengths” and JD’s supply chain and logistics to make e-commerce and retail easier for 
consumers.It is suggested that there is more to the deal, with Google interested in also using 
it to sell consumer hardware in China.

Meanwhile, the largest Chinese retailer by revenue will use Google Shopping to expand and 
offer products to the rest of the world, including U.S. and Europe.


During negotiations, the two companies reportedly discussed JD․com selling products like Home 
smart speakers through its online sites. Google hopes that by offering gadgets in that bustling 
market, consumers would become interested in exploring the company’s other apps. Selling 
hardware is also a less contentious way for Google to return to China, according to a source in the 
report.

The interest in expanding hardware sales into China’s lucrative market should come at no surprise 
given how Google has already taken other steps to increase its presence. Google opened an AI Center 
in Beijing last year, while offering software like TensorFlow and ARCore to developers, as well as 
Files Go for consumers.

At present, Google's search engines and other major businesses are banned in China, Google Maps 
and App Stores and other programs can not be used, but it is still providing marketing and 
advertising services for Chinese businesses, and open source software library TensorFlow and so on.

China is an undeveloped market for Google’s hardware business. Jingdong’s national distribution 
channels will help it obtain China’s channel and logistics resources as soon as possible.

According to a recent report by Canalys, in the first quarter of 2018, global sales of Google smart 
speakers surpassed Amazon for the first time, occupying the top spot with a market share of 36.2%, 
increased by 483% compared to the same period last year. Canalys pointed out that Google’s growth 
is mainly driven by the expansion of new markets. For example, in India, Google has gained local 
channel advantages by working with local carriers Jio and ACT Fibernet.

In the overseas market of furture, JD.COM and Google will jointly face to the old rivals Amazon and 
Alibaba. According to data released by the electronic business data company BloomReach in 
September 2016, Amazon has surpassed Google as the preferred search engine for most US users.
About 55% of U.S. users choose to start shopping on Amazon.com, and the percentage of shoppers 
who use Google as their default shopping engine has dropped to 28%. In addition, Amazon's cloud 
service, online video, and artificial intelligence voice assistance services are also Google’s big worries.

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(Source: JJGLE.COM & The Information)