Glogou Launches Products To Help US Companies Do Search Marketing In China

Everyone knows China is one of the hottest, fastest-growing markets for consumer goods, but how does a U.S. company become known by Chinese consumers via search marketing? One Silicon Valley-based company by the name of Glogou is working to bridge that gap with two new offerings — an English-language interface to the ad market on the popular Chinese search engine Baidu, and a service that helps US businesses gauge their accessibility and visibility in China.

The company, which also has offices in Boston and Beijing, has long offered related translation services, keyword research and search engine optimization.

Though Baidu is the world’s second-largest search engine, and it has advertising programs similar to Google’s AdWords, the engine has only offered Chinese-language interfaces for paid search thus far. Glogou says its English-language interface — a demo version is available here — is the first-such opportunity for English-speaking advertisers to interact with the programs in their native language.

The other new offering is called Web Accessibility and Visibility Evaluator, or WAVE, which helps US businesses assess their availability, penetration and site speed in the Chinese market. Given the “Great Firewall of China” factor, Glogou says more than 17% of US websites are not accessible from China. A free version of the WAVE is available, and paying customers will receive additional reports and daily monitoring alerts.

The services — at least in the demo and free versions — seem pretty basic thus far, but could offer helpful insight to companies looking to expand to the booming Chinese market.