Chinese Search Engine Results
The Chinese search engine Baidu is expected to increase its lead over Google within China in the upcoming months according to the China Daily newspaper. This news should have an impact on how people view their multi lingual search engine optimisation [SEO] in the future, especially when aimed at the Chinese market.
The newspaper reported that Baidu is expected to post a high growth rate for the next few years as the increase in internet usage continues to grow in China. Baidu recently increased its marketing spend to maintain its lead over Google, helping its first quarter profits to rise 24%, the result in a surge of advertising sales.
Google has reacted to this challenge by offering services in China such as free online music in collaboration with Warner Music and Sony. Baidu has also been offering a service that allows users to search for music files but believes the advertising linked to this accounts for only 5% of its revenue.
The market share that Baidu holds rose to 62.2% last year as opposed to Google’s share at 27.8%, although Google saw a slightly higher year on year percentage rise than Baidu.
The importance of these figures can be seen by the news reported by the Xinhua News Agency that there was 16.2 million new internet users in China during the first quarter alone. With a total of 316 million Chinese internet users this amounts to more than the population of the United States and will continue to grow.
The Chinese internet market is a reflection of the individuality that needs to go into any multi lingual campaign and not assuming that a high ranking for Google will instantly obtain the right results all over the world. Always contact a specialist Multi Lingual SEO company such as White Hat Media when considering your international SEO strategy.
