After Nintendo Switch Online membership officially rolled out yesterday, many Chinese gamers have suffered with black screens and connection failures in Splatoon 2 and MK8D.
Tests have shown that it is probably due to the introduction of Google-based servers. pic.twitter.com/ePny5ogZrD

— Chinese Nintendo (@chinesenintendo) September 21, 2018

Must be for the online verification step and the cloud saves since they didn't have problems with the p2p online games before?? Are Google services free? If they partnered with Google for the online service, the quality of it should be sufficient, at least it is easier than starting from fresh by yourself.

The service is already worldwide, since the Switch isn't officially launched in China there is no special server setup for them.

https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-switch-unplayable-in-china-due-to-google-connection/

Saw another person comment there:

"Also, this news confirms that Nintendo is using Google Cloud for their network backend. We know Xbox uses Microsoft's own Azure cloud service, and Sony uses Amazon's AWS. That means in this console gen, we also have the big 3 cloud computing companies playing a role."

Which is what I take out of this news, not that the online doesn't work in China, but that Nintendo is using Google.

Good for them.

Maybe this might help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China

"Google China is a subsidiary of Google. Once a popular search engine, most services offered by Google China were blocked by the Great Firewall in the People's Republic of China" and, more precisely:

"In November 2012, GreatFire.Org reported that China had blocked access to Google. The group reported that all Google domains, including Google search, Gmail, and Google Maps, became inaccessible. The reason for the blockage was likely to control the content in the nation's Internet while the government prepared to change leadership"

"The block is indiscriminate as all Google services in all countries, encrypted or not, are now blocked in China. This blockage includes Google search, images, Gmail and almost all other products. In addition, the block covers Google Hong Kong, google.com, and all other country specific versions, e.g., Google France. It is the tightest censorship ever deployed."

In other words, it doesn't work in China because anything and everything Google is blocked there by the great Firewall of China. So unless Nintendo finds another partner, even just for China, the Online Membership won't work there.

China blocks all google stuff, including their cloud servers, so it makes sense that it wouldn't work in China. The company I work for uses google cloud for our services but had to setup AWS in order to have a "China cloud".

Edit: ah shoot just saw the person right before me said the same thing.