Feb 19, 2013 at 9:40am ET by Greg Sterling

Chinese Internet company Alibaba has created a new search engine (Aliyun) to challenge Chinese market leader Baidu and more symbolically, Google. The new entity resides within Alibaba Group's AliCloud subsidiary. It offers all the standard features of search: Internet, news, images and maps (via AutoNavi). The appearance and functionality of the SERP on Aliyun is more like Google than a comparable page on Chinese search leader Baidu's site. Currently, Google has a tiny share of the Chinese search market: less than 5 percent. According to data from October 2012, this is wh [...]

Fastest Growth For Baidu, Second Place For Yandex & Google Is The Runner Up?

Nov 1, 2011 at 9:37am ET by Andy Atkins-Krüger

Last time, I was analysing the financial performance for the quarter of Google and demonstrated that internationally -- excluding the UK -- Google's growth rate over last year was around 44%. We have now seen the same quarter's figures from other major international search engines and we can conclude that Baidu's growth rate in China tops the lot, followed by Yandex in Russia. Even though Google's rate of growth outside the US and UK exceeds the US by some 20%, it still seems significantly behind both the Chinese performance of Baidu at 85% growth over the same quarter in 2010 or Yandex's [...]

China Launches New Censored Search Engine To Compete With Baidu

Feb 22, 2011 at 6:56pm ET by Chris Sherman

China Mobile and state-run news agency Xinhua have launched Panguso a new search engine that will let people search for news, web sites, images, videos and audio, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua. The new search engine will filter results according to the guidelines issued by the Chinese government, often referred to as "the great firewall of China." Here's a terrific analysis of how internet censorship in China works by The Atlantic's James Fallows. Panguso faces more than censorship challenges, as it confronts Baidu's whopping 76% market share in China, according to Anal [...]

Live Blogging Baidu CEO Robin Li At Web 2.0 Summit

Nov 15, 2010 at 8:03pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Baidu CEO & Chairman Robin Li will be speaking today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I’m here and will be live blogging his remarks, when the session begins. Li is set to speak at 5:15pm Pacific, and he’ll be interviewed on stage by John Battelle. Live blogging to start shortly. There’s also a live stream here. Don't know much about Baidu? China's largest search engine. BusinessWeek just did a big profile about it, which you can read here or get the highlights from our How Google Could Have Bought Baidu And Other Fascinating Details About China’s Largest Search En [...]

Losing Google? Chinese Scientists Say It’s Like Going Blind, Life Without Electricity

Feb 25, 2010 at 1:35pm ET by Matt McGee

Chinese scientists say their research will be dramatically compromised if Google shuts down its search engine in China. One scientist says it would be like going blind: "If I lose Google, it will [be] just like a man without his eyes." Another says it "would be like life without electricity." Those quotes and several statistics showing the potential impact of a Google-less China on the country's scientists are detailed in a new Nature magazine article, A land without Google? Nature surveyed 784 Chinese scientists and 84% said that losing Google would "somewhat or significantly" hamp [...]

Like Ballmer, Bill Gates Dings Google On China

Jan 25, 2010 at 11:56pm ET by Matt McGee

Bill Gates doesn't get the fuss everyone's making over Google's recent threat to stop censoring search results in China. "They've done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it," Gates said Monday during a visit at The New York Times. "What point are they making?" Mr. Gates asked. "Now, if Google ever chooses to pull out of the United States, then I'd give them credit." Gates' comments come just days after current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was also critical of Google's stance. Both Gates and Ballmer pointed out that many countries have questionable laws and policies. Lest Serge [...]

Ballmer Critical Of Google’s China Decision

Jan 22, 2010 at 7:10pm ET by Matt McGee

At a conference in Houston on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke critically of Google's recent decision to stop censoring its search results in China. Paraphrasing some of Ballmer's statements, Forbes says Ballmer called it an "irrational business decision" on Google's part. Ballmer suggested that Google's decision to no longer filter out internet searches objectionable to the Chinese government was an irrational business decision. After all, Ballmer said, the U.S. imports oil from Saudi Arabia despite the censorship that goes on in that country. "The U.S. is the most extreme wh [...]

Google Buys Search Ad In Response To The China Decision

Jan 20, 2010 at 4:39pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The Wall Street Journal noted that Google has purchased search ads for queries done on Google.com for "Google Leaves China" or "Google vs. Baidu." Clearly, Google wants people to read their position on the recent move for them ending the censorship of Google China. Here is a picture of the ad: Google, on occasion, will buy search ads to explain why the search results are a certain way. Here, they are explaining why Google China is no longer censored, but previously they have purchased ads for why an offensive image of Michelle Obama appeared on Google Images. They have also purcha [...]

Google Just Says No To China: Ending Censorship, Due To Gmail Attack

Jan 12, 2010 at 6:00pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Google has revealed that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted last December in a hacking attempt. That, along with other issues, has convinced the company that it will no longer censor results China as the Chinese government wishes. In particular, Google has willingly allowed self-censored its search results since January 27, 2006, on its Google China service. The screenshot above show an example of this, where a search for tiananmen on Google China (on the left) doesn't bring up protest pictures as you get when searching for the same thing on Google's main [...]

Google China Launches Music Search

Aug 6, 2008 at 9:06am ET by Barry Schwartz

Music 2.0 has shared detailed screen captures and commentary on the launch of Google China Music Search. I personally cannot get to this site ("Sorry, Google is not your region provide you with the services they need" message appears"), but Music 2.0 does have screen captures and calls this Google service "more impressive" then many of the international counterparts. Google China Music Search ranks music on the home page by some form of popularity metric. You can clearly search by artist name and other criteria. You can even download the DRM-free music in mp3 format at a rate of 192kbps. [...]

Google To Fight Baidu In China With Legal Music Downloads?

Feb 6, 2008 at 8:03am ET by Danny Sullivan

One of the key weaknesses Google has seemed to face in growing market share in China has been the fact that many people turn to Baidu to download music. Now the company may be fixing this, reports the Wall Street Journal: Two years after Google Inc. began a big push in China, Baidu.com Inc. continues to dominate the country's Internet search market, thanks in significant part to a controversial and legally risky offering: searches for free, unlicensed music downloads. Now, Google is preparing a counterstrike, according to people close to the situation. The U.S. search giant is in the late [...]

Alibaba IPO Reportedly As Big As Google’s

Nov 6, 2007 at 9:16am ET by Greg Sterling

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both report on the IPO and first day of trading for Alibaba.com. The offering was the biggest IPO by any Chinese company and raised an estimated $2 billion. The market capitalization of the company is now nearly $26 billion. Yahoo owns 39 percent of Alibaba Group, the parent of Alibaba.com, and previously said it would buy 10 percent of the available shares. Some analysts believe the stock is overvalued and unsustainable. But that's what many analysts also said about Google in its early days of trading. [...]

An Inside Look At China’s Internet Population

Jul 12, 2007 at 12:17pm ET by Chris Sherman

Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, has just published a fascinating report detailing the demographics of Chinese internet users. Deb, an American currently living in Shanghai, notes that "there are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the United States, where estimates of the current internet population range from 165 million to 210 million. The growth rate of China's internet user population has been outpacing that of the U.S., and China is projected to overtake the U.S. in the total number of users within a [...]

A Tale Of Two Cultures

Jun 1, 2007 at 6:52am ET by Gord Hotchkiss

Last week I had the opportunity to present some very preliminary results from our Chinese eye tracking study to a Chinese audience at Search Engine Strategies Xiamen. We’re still going over the results and preparing a final report, the highlights of which I’ll cover in this column in a few weeks. What I did want to do in today’s column is talk about our findings at a higher level. Doing this research made me realize that the typical user experience in one part of the world is not necessarily a typical user experience in another. Best practices don’t always transfer cleanly and ne [...]

Searcher Behavior In China

May 31, 2007 at 12:27pm ET by Chris Sherman

Attendees of Search Engine Strategies conferences in North America and Europe know that the searcher behavior panel has grown into one of the most popular sessions of the show. No surprise why: sophisticated search marketers have mostly mastered the tactical aspects of their craft, and in looking for a competitive edge turn to one of the least-understood variables of the overall search marketing equation—the needs of searchers and how best to satisfy them. The Searcher Behavior panel at SES China offered some of the first research ever done looking at the needs of Chinese searchers. The [...]

Report: Google Gaining, But Baidu Still Dominates In China

Mar 6, 2007 at 2:49pm ET by Chris Sherman

Reporting from the Fourth Annual Piper China Growth Conference, analyst Safa Rashtchy says that China-based search engine Baudu continues to dominate in market share for both organic and paid listings, but apparently Google's increased investments in China are paying off. Baidu also believes the opportunity in Japan will be significant longer term and they believe they have local market advantage vs. U.S. players. Video sharing sites are also seeing strong momentum, though there is no clear leader in China as yet. [...]

Yahoo China Morphing Into A Business Portal

Jan 9, 2007 at 12:47pm ET by Chris Sherman

Yahoo China is transforming itself into a business-oriented search engine, in part to deal with crushing competition from Baidu.com and portal Sina.com. "If Yahoo is going to win, it has to do so in a new way," said Jack Ma, CEO of e-commerce company Alibaba Group, which runs Yahoo's China operations in an interview with The Associated Press in China. Baidu is the search king in China, with nearly 64% market share, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Yahoo China has just an 8% share, after Google China's 19% share. The move comes little more than a year after Yahoo transferre [...]

Google Partners With China Mobile To Launch Mobile Search

Dec 26, 2006 at 8:48am ET by Barry Schwartz

Forbes reports that China Mobile and Google will be launching a mobile search service in 2007. The details are very fuzzy right now, all we know is that a China Mobile representative said something to the effect that they "begun developing their joint mobile search product for launch in 2007." This comes a week after Google partnered with Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom and surprisingly also after Google just said they wouldn't be seeking local partners to grow market share in China. Postscript January 4, 2006: Google posted the press release just today. [...]

Google Says They Won’t Ask For Help In China To Compete

Dec 22, 2006 at 9:03am ET by Barry Schwartz

In Google sticks to solo plans from the Shanghai Daily, Google said it won't work with a local partner in China to gain marketshare. Google's vice president of China operations, Kai-fu Lee said that they "have confidence in our current approach" in China. Currently, Baidu has 50 percent share in China, compared to Google's 16 percent share, according to one estimate. Baidu's share is expected to increase, while Google is expected to remain flat. Yahoo has made partnerships in China to try to expand their reach, with the Alibaba.com investment. Note that Google did announce a partnership de [...]

Microsoft China To Display Baidu’s Search Ads

Dec 14, 2006 at 9:48am ET by Barry Schwartz

MarketWatch reports that Microsoft and Baidu struck a deal where Baidu will be powering the paid search ads at Microsoft's MSN, Live.com and other China based services. Again, Baidu is to power Microsoft's ads in China, not the other way around. Baidu has the official press release. From the top of that: Microsoft Teams Up with Baidu to Deliver Paid Search Listings in China BEIJING, China, December 14, 2006- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)today announced a strategic alliance on paid search services, which will officially commence in December 2006. As a result of this stra [...]

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