Search engine market in China

7 December 2007 | Posted by Alex Christie | Search

According to the iResearch 2006 China Online Search Annual Report, there were 126 million people in China using search engines in 2006, this is a 29% increase on 2005 figures.

However, Google does not dominate the Chinese search engine market, as it does in the U.K. In fact, there fierce competition between Google and Baidu, which is a domestic search engine operator. Here are some statistics of the market shares in main search contents.

Content                                                                Market share
                                                                     Baidu Google
Music (MP3), downloadable                                  74.6% 14.7%
Image and photos                                              67.8% 26.7%
Online games                                                    61.0% 21.2%
Software and downloadable                                  49.7% 38.8%
Video, downloadable                                           49.4% 32.5%
Websites                                                          48.3% 39.9%
Dictionary, definitions and encyclopaedia             47.2% 40.9%
WebPages                                                          46.8% 37.5%
Shopping and business information                      42.5% 42.5%
Maps, city guides and travel information                38.8% 41.8%

(Source: CNNIC, 2005 China Online Search Market Survey Report, August 2005, Beijing)

Although Google’s popularity is increasing in certain niche demographics, it only exceeds Baidu in Shopping, business information and maps, city guides and travel information search in market share.