TMCnet News
New Report on China's Search Sector(China IT Watch Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) BEIJING, Jun 23, 2006 (SinoCast China IT Watch via COMTEX) --IT market research firm Analysys lately reported that China's Internet search engine market reached CNY 303 million in the first quarter of 2006. China's biggest search engine Baidu occupied a leading market share of 43.9 percent, seconded by Yahoo! China, with market share of 21.1 percent. Google ranked third in Chinese marketplace with market share of 13.2 percent in Q1 2006. According to the report, in the first quarter of 2006, revenues from Pay per Click Search Engine Bidding reached CNY 175 million; revenues from fixed position search engine advertising reached CNY 9 million; and revenues from real-name keyword registration and advertising services reached CNY 120 million. Analysys International says the combination of search engine with e-commerce is drawing people's attention. To advertisers who deal in international trade, Google has advantages on multi-language advertising, such as Korean and Japanese ad-words advertising. However, in major areas such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang, Baidu is more favored by online marketing advertisers. The market size of real-name keyword registration and advertising services has undergone negative growth. China's search engine market reached CNY 303 million in the first quarter of 2006, among which 91.42 percent was brought by search engine portals and 8.58 percent was brought by affiliate websites from search engine alliances. Revenues of search engine channels reached CNY 135 million. According to the report, excluding channel revenues, revenues from Pay per Click Search Engine Bidding reached CNY 175 million in the first quarter of 2006; revenues from fixed search engine ranking reached CNY 9 million; and revenues from real- name keyword advertising service reached CNY 120 million. In terms of search engine providers' market share, Baidu occupied a dominant market share of 43.9 percent in China, followed by Yahoo! China 21.1 percent, Google 13.2 percent and Sohu 9.2 percent. Analysys says Google has advantages on multi-language advertising, which are favored by international trade advertisers who centralize in the coastal regions in China. In Northeast China and Northern China regions, Baidu is more favored by online marketing advertisers. Real- name keyword advertising service has undergone negative growth. The Chinese version of Yahoo Inc.'s search engine was the worst offender in censorship tests that included rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and local competitor Baidu, an international free press advocacy group said. According to another survey, Yahoo.cn was also found to censor search results as strictly as Baidu.cn, while Google.cn and beta version of MSN.cn let through more information from sources not authorized by Chinese officials, Reporters Without Borders said. The Paris-based group said in a statement that it was "particularly shocked" by the scale of censorship on Yahoo.cn. Search results on key words deemed "subversive" by Chinese authorities returned results that were 97 percent pro-Beijing, more than its Chinese rival Baidu. Requesting information on certain terms, such as the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre or "Tibet independence," would cause the Yahoo.cn search tool to return an error message, the advocacy group said. As a result, the search engine would not respond to any query for about an hour. This method is not used by any other foreign search tools, but Baidu uses a similar technique. From China Business Post, Page 1, Thursday, June 22, 2006 [email protected] |