Google Dominance Challenged by China’s Baidu?

admin    Google Optimization     Baidu, Challenged, China's, Dominance, google

According to a BBC News article out last week, Google was responsible for 37 billion of the 61 billion searches made in August – over half of all search requests worldwide.

Unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave for most of the last decade, Google’s dominance of search will come as no surprise to you. What might surprise you a little is to see a company called Baidu accounting for an impressive 52% more search requests than the $500 billion Microsoft Corporation and its associated search engines (MSN/Live Search). The Top 5 most popular search engines worldwide in August were: (source – comScore)

Google – 37 billion searches

Yahoo – 8.5 billion

Baidu (China) – 3.2 billion

Microsoft – 2.1 billion

NHN (Korea) – 2 billionBaidu: closing the gap?

Baidu, the homegrown Chinese search engine, along with several other Asian search engines are now larger than many names more familiar in the West (Lycos or Ask anyone?). Accepted, they’re still a long way behind Google, but who isn’t?

The difference between the Baidus and NHNs on the list and top dog Google is that they still have plenty of potential for growth, which is exactly what they’re doing.

In the United States, Internet usage has now reached an impressive 68% – a high user penetration and one that doesn’t leave much room for a great deal of growth in the near future.

By contrast, China’s Internet usage is currently running at around 12% but increasing with each passing year. The potential of Baidu, and the other search engines currently challenging Google in their home markets, is simply massive. Google might appear unassailable today, but as countries like China and India inevitably take their place at the top table of world search expect things to look a little different. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Yahoo held the King of Search crown.Battle for the emerging markets

As Google continue to expand, regularly rolling out new services and assimilating other Internet big-players like YouTube, their progress appears to be inevitable. In reality though, there are still several markets where they aren’t getting their own way.

Google’s problems trying to crack the Chinese search market are fairly well documented. Despite huge investment and no small amount of persistence, Baidu remains China’s search engine of choice. In fact, Baidu is as popular for search in China as Google is in the USA.

The question is: Can Baidu stay No.1 as Google continue to intensify their efforts in targeting their market share? Several important factors suggest they can.

Baidu are blessed with unparalleled connections in China. Their willing compliance with the Chinese government’s censors appears to be paying dividends, with Baidu’s site regularly being more easily accessible than those of its foreign rivals. This close working relationship with those in power also helps Baidu when it comes to rolling out new services; which in China generally require government granted licences.

Another fact that should not be forgotten is the strong Chinese preference for their native companies. There is genuine support for the ‘local boy made good’ over a foreign giant that has repeatedly failed to understand their market. Naturally, Baidu do everything possible to play on these feelings in their marketing, casting Google, with great success, as an oafish foreign intruder.Future of global search

Not only have Baidu continued to hold firm in their home market, earlier this year they made their first foray overseas and moved into the Japanese market. In addition, rumours of a European launch refuse to go away…

Having captured over half of the global search market, has the dominance of Google reached a plateau? The likes of Baidu and NHN are effectively challenging them, not with superior technology but with superior local knowledge, meaning Google’s undisputed status just might not be as secure as it appears.

Related Link:China Search Marketing service from Backbone IT Group

need a website? want to be #1 on Google? visit our florida web design company homepage

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!