From Baidu in China to Yahoo in America, Search Engine Sales Soar
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Yesterday, China&#39;s #1 search giant, Baidu reported a quadrupling of sales. And on Tuesday, Yahoo! announced that their profits have tripled thanks to online advertising.
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Propelled by Google envy, new players and Internet industry giants are rushing into the online search market.
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(InfoWorld) - Fewer Chinese users are seeking out Google for its search services, according to a new report by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC). According to the survey by China's official Internet number cruncher, 62.1 percent of Chinese users turned to local favorite Baidu for search, up from about 52 percent in 2005. Much of that growthÂ came at Google's expense. Baidu also had the highest brand recognition among search engines, with 86.5 percent of respondents identifying with the name, compared to only 64 percent for Google. CNNIC is an agency organization that monitors Internet use in China. Although its surveys are considered representative of Chinese Internet use, CNNIC rarely releases its methodology or sample size. However, for this survey, CNNIC said that it interviewed 4,500 total Chinese Internet users, 1,500 each in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and that the poll had a 5 percent margin of error. Google saw its market share drop from 33 percent last year to 25.3 percent in the current survey. While a majority of users identified with the brand, 31.9 percent recognized Google's Chinese name, "Gu Ge," or "Harvest Song," in Chinese, compared to 16.3 percent for its English name. Google did come out ahead in one respect: it was the first choice for more non-student users with an income of greater than 3,000 renminbi ($378) than its rivals, with 46.5 percent. Despite the rivalry between Baidu and Google, it seems that a bigger user search pie would benefit both: 76.3 percent of survey respondents said they used more than one search engine regularly for a given subject.
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The number of Internet users in China soared past 200 million in 2007, a new report from the country&#39;s quasi-government Internet overseer said Thursday.China&#39;s Internet population&#160;stood at 210 million at the end of last year, up 53 percent from the same time in 2006 when there were 137 million, the China Internet Network Information Centre said in its semi-annual report on Internet use here.That figure puts China just 5 million users away from becoming the world&#39;s largest wired nation -- and with only about 16 percent of the population online. At its current growth rate, China will become the world&#39;s top Internet market sometime in the next few months.The greatest growth came from users under 18 and over 30, CNNIC said. One of the most surprising statistics from the new report indicates that about 40 percent of users added over the last year, over 29 million, came from rural areas. Even in the January 2007 report, the vast majority of Chinese Netizens were based in major urban areas such as Beijing and Shanghai.Also surprising among the new results is that China&#39;s most popular Internet application is online music, used by 86.6 percent of those surveyed, followed by instant messaging with 81 percent. E-mail placed only fifth, with 56.5 percent using it.CNNIC&#39;s survey provides the most reliable information about Internet use in China, although its methodology is translucent at best. It does not reveal its sample size, nor does it reveal what consists of an Internet user except that the person used the Internet at least once in the month prior to when the survey was taken.While the new statistics may seem impressive, it highlights how Internet usage in the country still lags behind mobile phone use, and how even greater usage could be spurred by more access through wireless devices. &quot;China&#39;s admittedly impressive user statistics hide an important fact: only a fraction of those users have regular access to a PC,&quot; said David Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia, a Beijing-based technology consultancy.Despite limited PC access for some users, Chinese Internet users have embraced the Internet as a means of expression. &quot;In addition to an increase in overall numbers, you also see a rise in the number of Netizens creating content on BBS and blogs, making Chinese Netizens some of the most active participants in the Web 2.0 phenomena in the world,&quot; said Sam Flemming, founder and CEO of CIC, an Internet word of mouth monitoring firm based in Shanghai.
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China's top Internet search firm  Baidu.com aims to overtake Google and Yahoo Japan with its  local search engine in Japan, its executives said on Wednesday.
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Search engine Baidu.com, which has risen rapidly as Internet use expands in China, launched a Japanese-language site on Wednesday.
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Several news stories have noted that China's internet user base increased by more than 70 million in 2007 to a count 213 million at year's end. Little noted is that 23 percent of these users use the internet from mobile devices.
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Ask Jeeves Inc. has made three significant enhancements to its search engine, as the Emeryville, California company continues to take aim at its much larger competitors in the search space: Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
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Chinese banks, an instant messaging service, and games topped the list of fastest-rising search terms on Google's Chinese Web site in 2007.
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InfoWorld - Baidu.com, China&#39;s most popular search engine, reportedly plans to announce details of a European expansion later this month.
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The recently concluded IPO by Google, the Internetâs most popular search engine, generated more buzz than usual for several reasons.
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Baidu.com Inc., China's biggest Internet search site, on Thursday said it had acquired Hao123.com, a popular Chinese search directory, as Baidu seeks to fend off global players now eyeing the Chinese market.
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Baidu is doing what no other Internet company has been able to do: clobbering Google and Yahoo in its home market.
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Search engines are starting to get up close and personal with many web users.
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China hit 162 million Internet users in June, the fastest growth since 2004.
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Also: Internet boom in China built on virtual fun. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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The market for search advertising has been growing rapidly, and the competition has increased among search engines.