Global Search Engines Blog

Travel meta search engines fuel global competition

2005-11-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

Travel meta search engines like Sidestep, Mobissimo, and Kayak offer travelers the opportunity to book online directly on the travel providers' web sites and often avoid paying service fees, which are usually charged by travel search engines. dt

ASBTA Survey: Meta Travel Search Engines Favored

ASBTA As Travel Companies Bypass the Middle Man, Small Business Travelers Can Absorb the Benefits - Direct Booking via Meta Search Engines Offers Major Travel Providers and Small Business Travelers Money Saving Opportunities read more

Yahoo buys out stakes globally

2005-11-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

In an effort to compete with Google globally, Yahoo has bought stakes in its operations in Germany, Britain, France and South Korea. Yahoo's global business rose 50 percent, to $228.5 million, compared with a 40 percent rise in U.S. sales, to $703.6 million. The search engines' global battle continues and the stakes are high. dt

Yahoo steps up battle overseas with Google
By Dan Bilefsky International Herald Tribune

PARIS A move by Yahoo to buy out the stakes it does not already own in its British, German, French and South Korean units is aimed at reducing its dependence on the U.S. market and better competing with its archrival among Internet search engines, Google.

Yahoo announced on Monday that it would pay $500 million to buy out the stakes.

Searching for news grows globally

2005-11-07T19:19:00.000-08:00

News search engines are attracting the attention of search engine marketers as news search grows globally. dt

77% of all Internet users get their news online
By: Sally Falkow & Doug Hay

The news search landscape is changing so fast that half of what we knew a year ago about search engine optimization and marketing is now obsolete, reports Greg Jarboe, a regular presenter at the international Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in the United States. The growth of searching in the 'vertical' channels like news or images was one of the new trends highlighted at the San Jose SES in August.

The growth of 'news search' has only come about in the last few years with the establishment of search engines that specifically index news stories and press releases. read more

A UK search engine goes for sale on eBay

2005-11-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm sure when you read that jux2 sold on ebay for $101,000 last month you just knew that copycat sellers would be right behind. Well you were right! Here's one from the UK called UKWizz, a search engine plus associated directory. "UKWizz is a spidering search engine focusing on the UK Internet." The starting bid is $15,000.00 but no bidders in 8 hours so far. Bidding ends on November 11th. dt

Bill Gates visits Israel to take on Google

2005-10-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Bill Gates made a quick stop in Israel no doubt to show how serious he is about his global aspirations and to show Israel that Google isn't the only game in town. You might remember that one of his prior execs, who Google snatched up, went to open Google's new office there. Don't know what he really accomplished but it was an interesting move none the less. dt

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem----October 30 ….He came, he saw, but did he conquer?
Bill Gates, the Microsoft CEO, made his first trek to Israel, but his media presence was upstaged by a terror bombing in Hadera. In addition, most likely due to Gates strict security contingent, his schedule was not broadcast by the Government Press Office which usually provides the schedules of visiting heads of state and celebrities. read more

Search Engine Strategies to hold its first conference in China

2005-10-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Strategies SES will hold its first conference in China next March 17 & 18th in Nanjing. The city of Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu Province and is located about 5 hours west of Shanghai. The search scene in China is heating up with Baidu the current leader holding the lead at 37%, Google at 23% and Yahoo with 21%. China has more than 100 million internet users with growth expected to top 120 million by the end of 2005. If you’ve ever thought about adding China to the mix, you don’t want to miss this one.

China now upset with Google

2005-10-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

First it was Taiwan and now China is upset with Google for changing the name on Google's map service from Taiwan a province of China to just Taiwan. China is important to Google as they struggle to gain users in one of the fastest growing internet user bases in the world. China's internet users reached 103 million and is expected to reach 120 million by years end. dt

The Age

San Francisco --- Google's popular online mapping service has become entangled in a long-running territorial dispute between China and Taiwan.

Until recently, Google's maps described Taiwan as a "province of China." That sparked protests from Taiwan's government, which has considered its island an independent state since ending a civil war with China more than a half-century ago. read more

Shoutouts...............

2005-10-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

Shoutout to Shak, my favorite blogger of all time. Why? Well he's into SEM, lives in China, has a cool business card and a great blog. I hope to meet him when I'm in Shanghai next year. Wanna join me? Stay tuned.

A big shoutout to Nick Wilsdon from E3Internet and fellow contributing editor at Multilingual-Search.com who
passed on an seo map site from frapper, where you can map where you're from among the world's seos and give a shoutout.

Another shoutout to Nick and Cher. Nic'N'Cher are search engine marketeers based in Glasgow & Winnipeg who have a lot to say on all topics concerning SEM & SEO. I love their blog. They rant about Google here and add a personal touch like this post. Keep at it girls!

Can the U.N. Rule the Internet?

2005-10-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

At issue is who should have control over Internet traffic and domain name management. The Internet was developed in the US and is largely privately owned and operated as stated by U.S. State Department's David Gross and the U.N. should not take control of it. The European Union is pushing for this plan since they claim that no one country should have final authority of this global resource. dt

The World Wide Web (of Bureaucrats)? Keep Your U.N. Off My Internet
By Adam Thierer, Wayne Crews, Special To LTW

WASHINGTON, DC - Kofi Annan, Coming to a Computer Near You!

The Internet's long run as a global cyberzone of freedom - where governments take a "hands off" approach - is in jeopardy. Preparing for next month's U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (or WSIS) in Tunisia, the European Union and others are moving aggressively to set the stage for an as-yet unspecified U.N. body to assert control over Internet operations and policies now largely under the purview of the U.S. In recent meetings, for an example, an EU spokesman asserted that no single country should have final authority over this "global resource." read more

South African Search Trends

2005-10-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

Search marketing is taking off in South Africa led by local search engines Ananzi and Aardvark according to this article by Andrea Mitchell, Media Director at Acceleration.

The South African online advertising industry has enjoyed strong growth over the past year, and can expand further as more South African organisations start to switch on to the benefits the online medium offers. The five trends below, which are already evident in other parts of the world, are likely to drive the growth of the local online advertising world by making the medium even more accountable, measurable, and functional. read more

Yahoo to Power Search for Open Content Alliance OCA

2005-10-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

This global consortium has undertaken quite a task and it will be interesting to see where this is headed and who is willing to contribute.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2005--
Cultural Institutions, Businesses, Government Organizations and Non-Profits Join in an Unprecedented Collaboration and Encourage Others to Participate

The Internet Archive, Yahoo! Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., the European Archive, HP Labs, the National Archives (UK), O'Reilly Media Inc., Prelinger Archives, the University of California, and the University of Toronto today announced the formation of the Open Content Alliance (OCA) http://opencontentalliance.org, a global consortium focused on providing open access to content while respecting the rights of copyright holders. The OCA will provide a wide range of material including cultural, historical and technological digitized print and multimedia content from libraries, archives and publishers. Content will be hosted in a single, permanent repository and complete works will be searchable and downloadable for free by anyone. read more

Google Rules Global Search

2005-10-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

According to this report Google has a large lead in global usage. The others may be able to make inroads in individual countries but it looks like Google will continue its dominance even though its share dropped slightly in the last two months. dt

Top search engines in September 2005: Google - 56.9%, Yahoo - 21.2%, MSN - 8.9% by ZDNet's ZDNet Research -- SearchEngineWatch points to September 2005 OneStat survey of search engine usage. MSN Search's global usage share has risen from 8.6 % to 8.9 %. Google's global usage share has decreased 0.3 % the last 8 months. Yahoo's global usage share remains stable. The second largest search engine on the web has a global usage share [...]

Search Engines -- India

2005-09-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

According to Internet World Stats, India's online population as of March 2005 is more than 39 million. If you have a global online strategy this is one country you don't want to miss. Below is a list of search engines in India that accept submissions in English. This is by no means an exhaustive list of search engines in India. These are the ones I found where submission guidelines were straightforward. For more about other Indian and global search engines see the links to the right under Global Search Engine Listings.

123India.com - India's premier portal. Submit Here -Must be India related content.

123Khoj - Has a standard listing, premium listing, keyword ranking and free listing (with reciprocal link). Submit to the free listing here.

123 World-Submit your site here for USD$49.00.

By India-Find the correct category and add url there.

Dial India-Submit here must be India related and requires a reciprocal link.

India Book- No longer accepting free listings. Standard listing for $9.99 accepted within 24 hours and listing good for a year. Also a premium listing for $19.99.

Great Global Search Engine Blog - Multilingual Search

2005-09-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a global search engine blog that really gets it. "Multilingual Search is the reference point on search engines and internet statistics worldwide for marketers working globally." Multilingual is really a better descriptor of global search engines because it takes into account the immigration or expatriate factor. A Russian speaker in the US might use Yandex for their search or a Chinese speaker in Australia may use Baidu. This blog has 11 contributors who cover a variety of global search engines. Below some of the recent postings;

Marina Zaliznyak posts about, as she calls it, a cultural or linguistic domain name for Catalunya, a region in Spain. Very interesting read.

Nick Wilsdon posts on the Russian search engine Yandex exanding into the Ukraine.

Andy Atkins-Krüger, the managing editor, talks about Baidu allowing music downloading.

This is a great blog about global search engines and anyone who wants to follow the global search engine market should be a regular visitor. I know I will. dt

Chinese Search Engine Race Sizzles

2005-09-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Baidu certainly holds the lead right now with 37% of the market share compared with Google's 23% and Yahoo's 21%. According to the following report Google can close the gap and pass them because of their R&D efforts and creativity but don't forget about the Yahoo - Alibaba deal. This race is just heating up and there's plenty of action here to watch. dt

BEIJING, Sept. 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire
Analysys International's upcoming 'Internet Search Engine Focus Report 2005' provides in-depth analysis and research on search engine business models and future developments in the industry. In the wake of Baidu's debut on the US stock market and Google's formal entry into China, the competitive landscape of the domestic search engine market will shift dramatically. read more

Google Places Former Microsoft Exec in Israel

2005-09-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

This global physical expansion by Google looks serious. Especially since this is another ex Microsoft exec. Do I see a pattern? Take talent away from Microsoft and place them around the world. Must be the 2005 version of Risk and Google seems to have the lead. Hey Steve, put that chair down!

By Israel News Agency Staff
Tel Aviv---September 10.....Google is coming to Israel.
Not in the virtual sense, but rather with offices, carpeting, windows (not Microsoft but physical ones), desks, secretaries, telephones (fixed land lines, not VoIP), a kitchen, conference room, toilets, marketing staff and coffee.

Google is the world's most popular Internet search engine, having replaced Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista and several others search engines through aggressive, creative development and marketing. read more

Kai Fu Lee Says Microsoft "Doesn't Get It" In China

2005-09-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know who will win this Google - Microsoft battle(battle because this is only part of the war) but it doesn't look good for Microsoft as they continue to lose talent to Google. dt

Bloomberg News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2005
SEATTLE Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice president with Microsoft, has testified that "blunders" and "unethical" behavior at the software company in China drove him to join Google.

Microsoft accuses Lee of violating a noncompete contract by agreeing to open Google's research center in China.

"Microsoft wasn't getting it in China," Lee said at a court hearing late Tuesday in Seattle. read more

Chirac Seeks Search Engine Supremacy

2005-09-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

I guess Mr. Chirac doesn't like the idea that two American companies wield such influence not only in France and Europe but around the globe. His response is to help fund a new European search engine Project Quaero, but I wonder if it's too little, too late. dt

By David Litterick in New York 08/31/2005
French president Jacques Chirac yesterday pledged to help fund a new European internet search engine to rival Google and Yahoo as he railed against what he sees as the threat of Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism.

In a speech in Reims, Mr Chirac said: "We're engaged in a global competition for technological supremacy. In France, in Europe, it's our power that's at stake."

read more

Alibaba's Ma Joins Yahoo's Yang

2005-08-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Alibaba could give eBay a run for their money. Their B2B site is highly evolved in the international trade community. TaoBao, their C2C play is a trading site with more than 9 million registered users and Alipay is their online payment system. Now throw in a cool $1 Billion to play with and Alibaba could win big. Note: I have some friends at Alibaba so of course I'm a little biased. ;)

Allen T. Cheng and Jonathan Thaw / Bloomberg
Saturday, August 27, 2005

It started with walks along China’s Great Wall and culminated at California’s Pebble Beach resort, where Yahoo Inc.! cofounder Jerry Yang decided to make a $1 billion bet on Alibaba.com CEO Jack Ma.

The friendship the two formed on their Wall hikes led to Yahoo’s purchase of 40 % of Ma’s privately held Alibaba, China’s biggest electronic-commerce company and No 2 online auctioneer. The question is whether the acquisition will help Yahoo overtake EBay Inc., China’s leading online auctioneer, and win more customers in the second-biggest Internet market after US. read more

Search Engines Explode Abroad

2005-08-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Kinda tough for local search engines to compete against the behemoths. You gotta have pretty deep pockets to enter these foreign markets and swallow up the competition. Lotsa money to be made and it's only just begun. dt

By Peter Lauria
New York Post
08/25/05 6:30 PM PT
According to Internet World Stats, for instance, between 2000 and 2005, Internet usage in Asia grew 183 percent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, that number climbs to 277 percent, and in the Middle East usage rose a stunning 312 percent during those five years.

Internet search companies have gone global, and their growth is exceeded only by their potential.

Since May, Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) , Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and AskJeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ) have bought assets in such overseas markets as Brazil, China and Italy, all with the aim of establishing leadership positions to capitalize on the Internet's tremendous growth prospects internationally. read more

Portal Race Goes Local And Global

2005-08-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Now that there's Google Earth, MSN's Virtual Earth and Amazon's street maps with ground level photos, men really don't have to ask for directions.

Journal of Turkish Weekly, 21 August 2005

A few weeks ago, the web world was captivated by the stunning images produced by Google Earth, an interactive 3D model of the globe.

The ground detail is a montage of satellite images, which means you can zoom in to very, very high detail. more

Search Engines Searching For Success

2005-08-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

(China Business Weekly)
Updated: 2005-08-15 14:02

It has almost become something of a clich these days: Baidu, "the Google of China." But like most hackneyed expressions, there's an element of truth to it.

The name is on everyone's lips and with good reason. On August 5, Chinese Internet search engine company Baidu.com posted the highest first day trading gains on the NASDAQ since 1999. In fact, these were the biggest gains ever recorded by a foreign enterprise in the history of the US securities industry. more

Alibaba Ties up with Yahoo

2005-08-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

CRIENGLISH.com
2005-08-12

Yahoo! will pay one billion US dollars in cash for a 40 percent stake in China's biggest online retailer, Alibaba.com. It's the largest online acquisition in China. CRI's Shanghai coorespondent explores what the partnership will mean for both companies and how it will affect China’s online industry.

Under the deal, Alibaba will take control of Yahoo’s Chinese internet operations.

Yahoo will get about 40 percent economic interest with 35 percent voting rights, making it the largest strategic investor in Alibaba.com. read more

Yahoo hopes to get it right with Alibaba

2005-08-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

The Standard
Sherman So and Tim LeeMaster
August 12, 2005

Has Yahoo finally got it right this time?

A pioneer in China's Internet market, Yahoo has never managed to capitalize on its international brand name, ready access to capital and technical expertise to become a major force in the world's second-biggest online market as measured by users. more

Google gets nod to set up branch in China

2005-06-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

By People's Daily Online

Google, the No.1 search engine company in the world has announced to launch "university search"service in China. Google aims to help users to search for information about the Chinese universities by launching the special service at the time when China's college entrance exam just ended. This is the first time Google offers service specifically to Chinese users. more

Yahoo! Buys Brazilian PPC Search Network

2005-04-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Newcomb | April 12, 2005

Yahoo! is expanding its presence in Latin America with the purchase of Brazilian performance-based advertising network TeRespondo.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

TeRespondo operates in much the same manner as Yahoo!'s Overture division -- distributing paid text ads on search results pages -- except its distribution network is centered in Latin America. The Sao Paulo-based company has offices in Mexico City and Miami.

Search Engine Market To Consolidate In China

2005-03-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

BEIJING, March 7 Asia Pulse - Search engine service providers launched a new round of attacks in the fiercely competing market yesterday - moves which could close the final stage of consolidations.

Baidu.com, the country's biggest search engine service provider, on Thursday held a Most Searched Brand and Entreprenuer award with Rupert Hoogewerf, CEO of EuroMoney China, trying to boost its influence among business leaders and young people.

According to an iResearch report on the Chinese search engine market, the business grew to 1.2 billion yuan (US$145 million) in 2004 with a 74 per cent year-on-year growth rate.

Baidu, Google and search services by Yahoo! China were the top three most popular search engines in 2004 with almost 85 per cent of the usage.

China E-commerce - Online Payments - Search Engine Marketing

2005-03-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Although this blog is about global search engines, I ran across this excellent thread from Webmaster World Forum about e-commerce (Alibaba) and online payments(Alipay)in China. This fits well with the story below.

Earlier this year from Search Engine Lowdown some interesting predictions for China's Search Engine Market Growth
China is expecting strong growth in its search engine industry. The market is expected to grow at an annual speed of 60 - 70 per cent to hit 2.6 billion yuan by 2006.

Those are two interesting facts about e-commerce in China and the search engine market growth. Even more interesting is the fact that they are happening at the same time. E-commerce was established long before (in Internet time) the search engine market here in the US. We'll definitely keep a watch on this. I produced several e-commerce and online marketing seminars for MBA students in Beijing and Guangzhou from 2002 - 2004 that included search engine marketing. They all were certainly determined to make e-commerce work and I have no doubts they will.

FLARE Heats Up!

2005-01-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Foreign Law Research: A joint effort involving several major law libraries, the FLARE project works to improve access to legal materials and how people use them. It offers extensive research guides to the law in several countries, training courses and a list of library holdings for European legal gazettes. Currently, the research guides available cover Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the topic, public international law.

Google making its mark worldwide

2004-12-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Google is pronounced in a variety of ways abroad, reflecting its international popularity. In France, the search engine is "GooGEL" while Japanese say "GOOgaru."

Here's more proof that Google is committed to making their search engine truly global with an international marketing plan. No matter where they go they are running up against Yahoo and even Microsoft MSN. With the search market maturing in the US is it any wonder? dt

Google marks debut with surge in revenue

2004-11-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

Google’s latest advance was boosted by a 145 per cent leap in revenues in international markets, where advertising on search engines is a less developed business.

Looks like Google knows the importance of search engine advertising in international markets and is set to take advantage of what should be phenomenal growth. dt

International Search Engine Advertising is Inexpensive and Easy for U.S. Companies

2004-10-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

American companies that strike gold with U.S. pay-for-placement search engines can now easily expand their market reach. According to one Internet expert, advertising overseas is currently inexpensive and easy but it won't stay that way for long.

Placing ads or buying keywords on search engines in other countries is inexpensive compared to the costs in the U.S. at present. If you have a product or service to sell in a foreign country this may be the most cost effective way to develop targeted traffic. dt

Search Marketing in Europe

2004-10-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Search marketing is increasingly global, but a local focus is still vital to achieve your goals. What does it take to have a successful search marketing campaign in Europe?
A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 2-5, 2004, San Jose, CA.

An excellent article by Patricia Hurst on the search market in Europe. dt

Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship

2004-10-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Google Inc.'s recently launched news service in China doesn't display results from Web sites blocked by that country's authorities, raising prickly questions for an online search engine that has famously promised to "do no evil." Dynamic Internet Technology Inc., a research firm striving to defeat online censorship, conducted tests that found Google omits results from the government-banned sites if search requests are made through computers connecting to the Internet in China.

Having lived in China I can tell you that censorship is in fact a reality. Many times I would be watching news from HongKong and it would immediately break for commercial during a controversial story. Of course television is much easier to censor than the Internet. Here is Google's explanation "In order to create the best possible news search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites, for a variety of reasons. These sources were not included because their sites are inaccessible" and a link from Google would only show as a broken link. Many people think Google has caved into the Chinese government requests and therefore broken their "do no evil" pledge. dt

Yahoo's Overture Ad Unit to Open Five Intl. Offices

2004-09-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Overture Services, Yahoo Inc.'s Web-search advertising unit, on Monday said it plans to enter five new international markets in the coming months as the Internet media company continues to broaden its global reach. Beginning in the fourth quarter, Overture will open in Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Another example of how the big players see how important international search has become and finding ways to monetize it. I'm sure Overture will make a bundle in each of these countries and who can compete? Are there any local search engines that offer PPC in these countries? dt

ThomasB2B Launches Paid Search

2004-09-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

ThomasB2B.com is launching its new global online advertising network this week, featuring bid-for-position and pay-per-click pricing for advertisers wishing to reach business-to-business buyers. The Thomas Global Register Directory encompasses approximately 10,000 product categories.

Although this is more like a directory, it does provide for a search product category feature and their global focus (29 countries and in seven languages)makes them attractive to this global search engine blog. dt

Chinese search site Baidu acquires directory Hao123

2004-09-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

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.

This looks like a good move for Baidu.com buying a popular directory as the Chinese search engine market heats up. Consider this; Yahoo! owns Chinese search company 3721, and also recently launched a Chinese-language search portal. Google has acquired a minority stake in Baidu.com Inc. dt

Wotbox Rolls Out Eight Localized Search Engines

2004-09-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Search engine vendor Wotbox has launched eight new localized search engines and plans to introduce more soon. The new country-specific search sites are for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.S. The sites allow users to search in their native language and to limit search results to the search site country.

I checked out this search engine and they have some good ideas. I like the flag that appears next to the result as well as the related searches on the right that give ideas of other search terms you can use. For instance I typed in global search engine and got suggestions for other search terms. I don't know why it gave me search engines twice though. Also there were 5 sponsored results on the top (perhaps too many). In addition 2 of those were the same company. Overall though good results and nice format. dt

Ask Jeeves Launches Japanese-Language Search

2004-08-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ask Jeeves has launched a beta version of a new Japanese-language search engine. Based on the Emeryville-Calif. search vendor's Ask.com search portal, Ask.jp was developed by Ask Jeeves Japan Co. Ltd, a joint venture of Ask Jeeves and Japan-based transcosmos.

With the launch, Ask Jeeves joins Google and Yahoo as one of only three search portals in Japan that provide their own search technology.

Yahoo Opens New Search Engine for China

2004-07-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

According to Search Engine Journal. Yahoo entered the Chinese market again by unveiling a new Yahoo based search engine dedicated to Internet searches for China - Yisou! Last week Google Inc. also made its first voyage into Chinese Search in a sure fire expansion of the Search Engine Wars onto the mainland.

Google Takes Stake In Baidu; Positions For Battle With Yahoo! In China

2004-06-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

China Business Strategy
by Paul Denlinger
Posted June 16, 2004

Google has taken a minority investment position in Baidu, a Chinese player in the keyword advertising market. Up until now, Google has had trouble penetrating the Chinese market because of Chinese government regulations of the media content market. The exact terms and amount of the investment were not disclosed.

Baidu would be Google's first announced investment in the Chinese market. While Google is popular among Chinese users, and is established as a brand with urban users, it does not have an official presence in China. Google does not have any sales presence in China, even though it offers Chinese keywords for bidding on its website.

With more than 60 million Internet users in China, Google realizes this is the place to be. They would have a tough time competing with Baidu and obviously realized if you can't beat 'em join 'em. This will give a boost to the search engine landscape in China and we may see things shaken up as other big players grab of a piece of the fsst growing market with 1.3 billion people. dt