The Chinese government has renewed Google's licence to operate in China, the internet giant has said, ending a long-running stand-off between the two.

Google gave no details of the licence renewal.

There had been speculation China would revoke the licence after Google began redirecting Chinese users to its unfiltered search site in Hong Kong.

But last month, Google said it would no longer automatically redirect users in a conciliatory move towards Beijing.

Instead, Chinese users would be sent to a "landing page", which would send them to the Hong Kong site.

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP (internet content provider) licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China," Google's lawyer David Drummond said an e-mailed statement.

On Thursday, Google boss Eric Schmidt said that he expected the Chinese government to renew the licence.

Google has had a long history of run-ins with the Chinese authorities, but without a licence granted by Beijing, it cannot operate in China.

"Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government," Mr Schmidt has said.

In January, Google said it might pull out of China following what it called a "sophisticated" cyber attack originating from the country.

The announcement was not well received in Beijing.

The licence renewal is key to Google. Losing business in China, which already has more internet users than any other country despite relatively low penetration, could harm the company's future growth prospects.

Source: BBC

If you would like news like this delivered direct to your inbox, subscribe to CSfD ’s free quarterly newsletter by emailing your details to sales@csfd.co.uk.   Your information will not be used for any other purpose.