China SEO Blog

Google has released the list of the most searched terms on its search engine in China for the year 2007. Maybe as a testimony to a year in which listed shares have almost doubled in value, three banks that were listed on Shanghai stock exchange a year ago found themselves in the top 10, together with the keyword “stock” itself at spot #4. QQ, the leading Chinese instant messenger application, also a popular automobile brand, is ranked at the top of the list.
Below is the top 10 in the order (English equivalent):
1. QQ
2. China Merchants Bank
3. ICBC
4. Stock
5. Game
6. China Construction Bank
7. Google Earth
8. Thunder (a download tool)
9. Kaspersky (Chinese antivirus software)
10. MSN

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A deal has been signed by Baidu, the leading search engine in China, and the Mozilla Foundation, owner of the Firefox web browser. Baidu will be paying Mozilla for integrating its search tools in the Chinese version of the Firefox browser.
Although that deal is very similar to the one Mozilla has with Google in the US, the impact is unlikely to be that important considering the tiny share Firefox hold in the Chinese browsing market (less than 2%). Things may change however if Baidu puts together some kind of promotion for the IE rival through its search properties…

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InterActiveCorp (IAC)’s CEO Barry Diller has announced that the group flagship search engine, Ask.com, will enter the Chinese market within the next two years. The group plans to invest 100 million dollars in the middle kingdom expansion with the hope to become a major player in the country’s highly competitive search industry.

Ask is ranked fourth in the US (behind Google, Yahoo and Live/MSN). But if Google hasn’t been able to beat rival Baidu, while Yahoo and Microsoft are struggling with tiny yet decreasing market shares, what strategy will enable Ask to make it in China and surpass local players lead by Baidu?

An acquisition strategy seems probable as it would be hard to imagine Ask to start from scratch. Maybe Ask would take a look at Sina’s iask.com, due to name similarities and the fact that iask (爱问 in Chinese) is already well known as a search engine in China (although not one of the top tier or even second tier engines)? iask.com results are currently powered by Google.

A whois search has revealed that ask.cn and ask.com.cn are currently owned by a Beijing company called 北京国网信息有限责任公司. ask.cn is currently parked with sedoparking while ask.com.cn redirect to www.u.cn ; someone is about to get seriously rich….

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Google China says the new domain will make it easier for Chinese users to remember and use its search engine. This move is probably part of the global search engine giant continuous effort to play a major role in the mobile search industry. Difficult to say at this point whether this will have any impact at all when it comes to help the company’s gain market share from Baidu in overall search.

Will any competitor follow up by using a short domain in China? We won’t be surprised to see a b.cn or similar move in the near future…

G.cn is currently redirecting to Google China homepage, Google.cn

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According to a report from Xinhua news agency, Baidu trails Google when it comes to mobile search in the middle Kingdom.

That’s one of the rare areas where Google has established its predominance in China, a market where its reach beyond first tier cities is pretty limited and one of the few countries in the world where the global leader finds itself in an underdog position (in this case, No2 behind Baidu). Google’s position in mobile search is certainly due to the company’s deal with the major telephony operator China Mobile, while Baidu has so far been in partnership with handset manufacturers only (Nokia).

Mobile search is believed to have a bright future in China, which boosts 5.5 million wireless internet users, of which 4.43 actively use mobile services. But the true potential of this market will not be fully unleashed before the authorities make a final decision regarding the controversial 3G standards.

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Based on the latest search engine survey report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), three searchers out of four searchers in China use Baidu as their primary search engine. This represent over 10% growth over last year results (62%). According to the same report, Google share has also changed by about 10% but on the red side, sharply decreasing from 25.3% to 14.3% over a one year period.

Below are some of the key statistics from the report:
-Top 5 Players: Baidu (74.5%), Google (14.3%), Sohu (2.8%), Yahoo (2.1%) and Sina (1.7%). No other portal has more than 0.6%
-Head to head Baidu vs Google: First tier cities: 67.33% vs 22.11%; Second tier cities: 73.35% vs 14.78%; Third tier cities: 83.82% vs 4.99%; high end users (aged 25 or more, with bachelor degree or more, earning 3,000RMB or more per month): 47.72% vs 42.32%

The study has been done primarily through telephone interview, with 3337 people contacted, of which 1212 in first tier cities, 1062 in second tier cities and 1063 in third tier cities.

This study and several others which all reveal a progress in Baidu’s market share and a decline in Google’s one should make clear to internet marketers targeting the Chinese market that Google reach should not be overestimated and that Baidu cannot be ignored if one really wants to get optimial exposure in China. Until very recently Google was at least leading in the high-end market but seem to be surpassed by Baidu there too. Advertisers which primary markets are not Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen or the like have little incentive to use Google for their online campaigns.

Another lesson from the report would be the confirmation if needed of the death of Yahoo and the failure by Jack Ma to at least maintain if not grow the search engine position as previously hoped for after the Alibaba acquisition.

Source: www.seo4china.com

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Baidu has started selling video advertisement through its network of 150,000 partner sites in China. The new service basically will promote floating, embedded or inserted video ads through those partners websites. The official name is Baidu TV and it will provide three additional services: video business card, business video hosting and search video (similar to Google Adwords’ video ads format).

At this point we do not know exactly how many of sites will be involved in this new scheme, the conditions these sites have to meet, or the profit-sharing terms.

Probably a move to remind Google China, who has been very active recently through acquisitions and new products launching, of who is the real “LaoDa” in the Chinese search market.

Source: www.seo4china.com

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