Baidu takes pole position in China’s mobile search market

Details: James Barton; Category: Trends & Forecasts; 29 July 2010; 9625 views

The Chinese search engine giant Baidu looks unlikely to relinquish the mobile search market to competitors, with new data showing that the engine registered the most mobile searches of any company in China during Q2 2010...

Analysys International has stated that Baidu accounted for 34.3 per cent of total mobile searches during this period – a rise of roughly 5 per cent over the first quarter. Western market leader Google dropped to third place, with its share of mobile searches falling to 12.3 per cent, placing it behind Chinese mobile search provider Easou.com.

Baidu has also revealed that it has approached several handset manufacturers to discuss the possibility of embedding a Baidu search box on Android smartphones, a move which would only increase the company’s standing in the mobile search market.

“Google’s dispute with the Chinese government, and subsequent withdrawal from the Chinese market, has given Baidu the advantage of unrivalled growth in the world’s largest Internet market,” commented Jia Wu, an analyst at Strategy Analytics’ digital consumer practice. “As a result, Baidu’s global revenue market share has grown to 4.6 percent from 3.3 percent in a single quarter. This growth is expected to continue for the rest of the year.”

Baidu has grown to become the fourth-largest search company in the world by revenue, after Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.