China's Search Engines Rev Up?

'Ho Hum' Article from Forbes

[bill]

article [forbes.com]

The three main domestic players are Baidu.com, styled after Google, Yahoo Inc (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people) subsidiary 3721.com and Zhongsou.com, which powers search services at three Nasdaq-listed Internet firms.

There isn't too much news here, but it's interesting to see this being written about in the English mainstream press.

[David_M]

Just heard on CNBC Asia last night, "analysts" are expecting the "China Internet Bubble" to burst any time now.

[hotice_2002]

I think, the best way for google into China, is buying Baidu.com.

If google buyed baidu.com, then it will reach 70 million internet surfers in China, and beat Yahoo.cn.
:)

[jimpoo]

It is always inadvisable that missing the China market. Although the market is still small compare to the market in USA, the changing speeds in China for everything are very surprised you. So, don't ignore China.

Recently I received some spam email from China said that they offer Google AdWord service start from гд200 per month.

[div01]

It could be a bubble if they don't clean up all the scams, website copying and phishing coming out of China. There is a growing list of users and sysadmins pretty much banning all web and email traffic from China. You can't have that if the Internet is to be more than a hack/annoyance tool.

[bill]

"analysts" are expecting the "China Internet Bubble" to burst any time now

Did they mention any contributing factors or signs that this was about to happen? It seems to me that things are just starting to mature in China as some of the larger comapnies are becoming more established.

[mayor]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see China come up with a high-powered search engine desiged for English language use, to compete in the US e-commerce market.

I'm surprised I haven't seen one coming out of India yet.

Remember, the Web is a global network, and it provides easy access to US e-commerce markets for the entire world.

[kazonik]

You might like to check your logs for "Openbot/3.0".

Its a search service coming out of Taiwan.

As far as I've noticed, its the 3rd most active bot behind Google, and ia_archiver (alexa).

Peace,
Kaz

[shrirch]

I think Openbot belongs to Openfind, which contributes some results to MSN search in the Greater China region.

I would not expect a Taiwanese company to play big in the Chinese market... way too much politics involved.

[mil2k]

I'm surprised I haven't seen one coming out of India yet.

I dont expect any major search engine from India for a long time (if ever). The only substantial thing maybe the research the Google Bangalore team comes up with.

[bill]

Baidu president takes on Google [news3.xinhuanet.com]

Robin Li has a position that many people envy as president of Baidu.com, the biggest independent Internet search engine operator in China. The buzz surrounding the company comes as it plans to make an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock market in New York, which some analysts say will result in Baidu being worth as much as US$1 billion.

It looks like Baidu is making some big moves in this market.

[bill]

Another point from the article above:

He predicted in late December that China's search engine market would reach US$50 million in 2003 and US$96-120 million this year.

I'm not sure if this is a bubble, but it looks like the search industry in China is expected to grow dramatically.

[edit_g]

Btw - what is going on with google.cn?

[howdie]

Does anyone have contact information for www.baidu.com in English? I have a large amount of traffic originating from China and wanted to capitalize on that traffic. There has been much talk about www.baidu.com and their PPC in China. As I do not read Chinese I am at a loss as to how to contact them.

[netvisa]

Howdie - Send an email to [e-mail], you may get some response.

[howdie]

NetVista - Thank you for the lead. I sent a note... I'll let you know how it goes.