Baidu Hopes Google Loss In China Is Its Gain
Google's a lot publicized fight with Chinese government officials more than censorship and also the uncertainty that now surrounds its China operations is giving new existence to its competitors, with China lookup giant Baidu seeking to reap one of the most advantage.
Baidu's vice chairman of sales and advertising, Xiang Hailong, mentioned his company's reveal with the search motor marketplace in China has shown "marked improvement" this year and that it hopes to soon control much more than 80 % of the marketplace. Back in March, the Beijing-based IT industry consultancy iResearch mentioned Baidu's share within the domestic market had grown to 76 % at the end of 2009. The numbers are encouraging for Baidu, but that doesn't mean Yahoo is beaten in China. A few of the best parts of Google are still accessible, such as its maps and free music service. The latter is one of the key elements behind rival Baidu's early success.
So despite the fallout from its censorship fight, Yahoo nevertheless manages to hold on to a lot of its customers, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. "There is a time price in learning to manage new services such as Gmail and mapping, so users accustomed to Yahoo services will most likely maintain utilizing these providers as lengthy as they are able to."
But Google's customers may not be so loyal. Google's advertisers have a lot much more to shed if it bottoms out in China. A lot of them are already experimenting with ads on other lookup engines, and people who do not wish to danger the uncertainty at Google may bet more on Baidu.
Other, lesser recognized lookup engines are also using the Google dust-up to more aggressively court Google's marketing customers. For instance, one of China's biggest portals, Sohu, also has a lookup motor.
Called Sogou, its method for winning clients from Baidu is pretty easy -- low pricing. It costs just $75 to open a new advertising account on Yahoo, a lot lower than the $1500 Baidu charges. Many smaller companies that advertise with Google cannot afford Baidu, so Sogou is trying to entice them by offering discounts.
Analysts believe Baidu's grip on the search engine market will be difficult to crack, yet it only has a little more than 20 percent of China's online ad market. So it remains to become observed if Baidu will end up winning big financially if Google's advertisers end up placing their money elsewhere.
Information Week