Google Wants China, China Bans Google Earth

China has always been somehow a prohibited land for Google although the search engine provider has struggled to evolve in the market by acquiring new companies, releasing new Chinese flavors of its products or signing deals with the local players. However, it always encountered problems, no matter if we're talking about fake agents who pretended to be hired by Google or about the Baidu reply which has always been pretty tough if we analyze the market shares.

A new report rolled out today revealed even more trouble for the Mountain View-based company as its top downloadable application, namely Google Earth, may get banned in the near future due to the fact that it shows too much information, making it available to the whole public.

However, it seems like Google made a secret move back in July 2007 when it invested no less than $1 million in Comsenz Inc., a Chinese company, provider of social network software, as VentureBeat explained in an article published today.

The living proof of this investment is actually a filling hosted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which gives us more information about Google's move:

"In July 2007, Google invested approximately $1 million in the Series B preferred stock financing of Comsenz Inc., a provider of Bulletin Board System (BBS) and social networking software and hosted services for websites in China. Certain venture funds of Sequoia Capital China hold more than ten percent (10%) of the outstanding shares of Comsenz," it is mentioned in the regulatory filling.

"Michael Moritz, who was a member of the board of directors of Google until May 2007, is a non-managing member of the mid-tier general partner of the Sequoia Capital China funds and has a greater than ten percent (10%) equity interest in one of the Sequoia Capital China funds."