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12/06/2008  |  Google Aims To Target Russia

The general perception among web users is that Google dominates the global search industry. This may be the case in America and Western Europe. Not so in Russia or China, whose combined populations will provide over 50% of the anticipated growth in world internet usage during the remainder of this decade.

Google is currently the second largest search engine in Russia, behind Yandex who receive approximately double Google’s total in searches. Sergei Brin, Google’s Russian-born co-founder expressed in a recent newspaper interview that he is keen to fill the gap between Google and his home country’s favourite search engine.

Similarly, the Chinese search industry is dominated by the domestic provider, Baidu who currently enjoys 55% of the market, compared to Google’s 27%. Given that internet penetration in China is currently only 10.9% and 19.5% in Russia, compared with 69% in the United States, the scope for growth is massive.

China is estimated to overtake the US as the largest online community by the end of next year. Russia is likely to provide the majority of new web users in Europe. Google, clearly, is closely monitoring the growth of internet usage in the East. Companies who look to the internet for generating new business will ignore these twin opportunities at their peril.

While the opportunity for growth cannot be overestimated, focussing solely on Google listings in Russia and in China will cause web marketers to miss out on a large proportion of the available market. Achieving listings on both Baidu and Yandex is theoretically possible but not easy. There are a number of potential pitfalls, not least the fact that Yandex will only accept site submissions from within Russia. Baidu, in turn, combines both paid and natural search results in one listing. Achieving top site rankings in China, will therefore probably involve some outlay on paid-for advertising.

In summary, Russia and China will provide high dividends when you use a professional web agency with proven expertise in the necessary skills to penetrate the lucrative Eastern market.