Google’s share of China’s Internet search engine market is being rapidly eroded by its Chinese rival Baidu.com Inc, according to new report released today. The report was based on figures from Xinhau, the quasi-government China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) and reported on by the Search Engine Herald.
Baidu.com has managed to increase its market share by at least 10 per cent during the past six months in three major Chinese cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou which account for the vast majority of China’s Internet population, the survey by CNNIC showed.
Only six months ago, Google was the most frequently used search engine for Internet users in Shanghai. CNNI”s survey found Baidu now has a 43.9 per cent market share in Shanghai compared to 38.2 per cent for Google.
The survey also found Chinese Internet portals Sina Corp and Sohu.com, which are also listed on the NASDAQ, and US Internet giant Yahoo! are all losing share in China’s fast-growing Internet search engine market.
Last year, the size of China’s search engine market hit 700 million yuan (US$86.4 million), compared to 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million) in 2002, according to Beijing-based research house Analysys International. They forecast the market size could reach 3 billion yuan (US$370 million) by 2007.
Nick Wilsdon
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Those growth numbers will dwarf what is happening in the US at least as percentage growth.