As it stands now, Baidu.com holds a little over 60 percent of the Chinese search market. Google is behind with about half that. But if I were a betting man, I would have to slap some money down on da Google.

Here are some reasons why I think so:

1. Google innovates. They will continue to innovate, while Baidu will continue to follow those innovations as best they can. We've all heard about the great hippie work environment at Google, and while I have no idea how the show is run at the Baidu shop--I can guarantee you that idea juices are not flowing as freely as they do over at Goog-central. On a side note, Chinese companies tend not to encourage lower level employees to speak out of position. As the saying goes, "The nail that sticks out gets driven back down." I'm sure any company in China will have a difficult task ahead of them encouraging Chinese employees to freely contribute ideas. But Google already has their Chinese employees doing some pretty wacky stuff. And plus, I hear they give out free t-shirts!

2. Advertising. Google's ad platform is already becoming a commonplace sight on Chinese Web sites. And as blogging becomes more popular in China, so too will the primary means of profiting from it, i.e. Google Adsense. Sure, Baidu has advertising too. But they won't keep pace with the new features that Google is rolling out. If I were to guess (which I'm doing now), I'd say that most advertisers will gravitate to whoever can get their name out best.

3. Google search is just flat-out better. Much to the dismay of many SEO geeks out there, Google tweaks their search algorithm on a pretty regular basis. Baidu is still a tad old-fashioned as far as search goes. While Google is focusing on crawling the all important content, Baidu is still tripping over meta-data. Google is the global leader after all, and if there ever was a country in love with top brands it's China.

4. Baidu's dodgy MP3 search. It has to catch up with them sometime, doesn't it? (Doesn't it?). What if there's a massive push to clean up online piracy? That could happen right? (Right?) A good chunk of Baidu's edge over Google might be attributable to this key search feature. Google can't get away with it. Baidu can. But for how long?

On second thought, maybe I should scratch number 4. No one's cleaning that up anytime soon.

5. Android/G-OS. Google's push for a mobile platform will certainly make them more visible to Chinese users. Their search bar will be showing itself in tiny villages that have yet to see a decent can opener. And if those villagers do need to find a can opener, all they need do is type "C-A-N O-P-E-N-E-R" and voila! 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Do I think Google is going to catch Baidu anytime soon? Heck, no. But I do think Google will be munching a sizable portion of Baidu's Christmas pie this time next year. Be sure to check back next holiday season, and see if Baidu is over fiddy percent market share.

Then we can debate whether the Baidu glass is half full or half empty. Methinks I'll be bettin' half empty.

 

Wyndham
Level:
Ireland

cvravishankar
Level:

slockums
Level:

harsij200
Level:

zaki572
Level:

matthewtan28
Level: