Skype has a new partner in China, but users will probably still be spied on

Microsoft-owned Skype terminated its previous joint-venture partnership in China earlier this month, and today the company has unveiled its new business buddy for the China market.

From now on, Skype will be operated in China by Guangming Founder, points out a new post on the official Skype blog today (via TheNextWeb). The China-only version of the Skype app is being updated today across Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. The Windows Phone version will be updated a bit later. Skype has over 100 million registered users in China.

The new joint venture appears to be called GMW Skype, and people in China who go to Skype.com will be redirected to Skype.gmw.cn (pictured above). The previous agreement was dubbed TOM Skype and consisted of the same arrangement of a separate version of Skype available from a China-only homepage.

The new GMW Skype will very likely be subject to the same surveillance and snooping as the previous TOM Skype. In 2008 it transpired that the special China edition Skype app was monitoring and censoring users who were sending politically sensitive words via the chat service.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)