Google Sees Mobile Search As The Key To Catch Baidu in China

[engine]

Google Inc., trailing Baidu.com Inc. in China's online search market, expects to process more local Web queries through mobile phones than computers by 2011, aided by an alliance with the nation's largest wireless carrier.

"In some quarters, our mobile traffic will double, whereas it will take perhaps a year to double on the PC side," Google's China President Lee Kai-Fu said in a Bloomberg Television interview broadcast today. Mobile-search volume may exceed that from computers in three years, he said.

Google, which is also developing an operating system for mobile phones, leads Beijing-based Baidu in Chinese wireless searches after gaining exclusive rights to process queries from China Mobile Ltd.'s customers. The Mountain View, California- based company earns less than half its local rival's online advertising sales from Chinese computers.

Google Sees Mobile Search As The Key To Catch Baidu [bloomberg.com]

[bill]

An interesting tactic. I've been watching mobile search in Japan for quite some time, and it's always been a very distinct market. Usage patterns are different, and to a large extent the chances for revenue on the mobile side are generally lower than online. However the newer phones now available in China are much more powerful than anything that's been on the market to date, so Mr. Lee may not be too far off the mark.

[seo4china]

Considering the status of the 3G license in China, this is a losing bet from Google. Mobile search will NOT help them catch up with Baidu