Open source is a double-edged thing. Whereas the free and “open” Android platform has been a boon to Google in most places around the globe, in China the story is apparently different.

The Next Web reports (based on third party information) that the general manager of Baidu’s wireless unit claimed 80 percent of Android-based handsets in China will soon have Baidu as default search engine. Baidu currently controls more than three-fourths of the Chinese PC search market.

The company is working with handset OEMs to get Baidu pre-installed on Chinese Android smartphones. If the company is successful and lives up to its prediction, Google will be marginalized in the world’s biggest internet and mobile markets.

China has almost 900 million mobile users, about three times the entire US population.

Android was to be a way that Google could regain momentum after being all but pushed out of the PC search market by Chinese government favoritism of Baidu and hacking.

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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