Bing Improves Search Share Very Slowly

Based on data shared by Experian, Bing exhibited gains in search engine usage share recently. Bing-powered search improved its share to 28.99 per cent in four weeks ending August 27th from 28.05 per cent in July, representing a 3% improvement. Searches from Bing.com also improved from 12.98 per cent to 13.10 per cent during the same period.

It has been reported that the volume of longer search queries — those that average between five to eight words — increased by 3 per cent. Perhaps more people realized that by using longer search queries, they feed Google with more specific queries and are provided with more accurate results.

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Baidu Further Ahead in China Search Market Share in Q4 2010

Without a legitimate contender to its throne, it isn’t surprising that Baidu is taking a tighter grip of its dominance in the Chinese search market landscape during the fourth quarter of 2010 — up from 73% to 75.5%.

From Associated Press:

Search engine Baidu further strengthened its dominance of the Chinese Internet market in the fourth quarter at the expense of US rival Google, a research firm said Wednesday.

Baidu’s share of the increasingly lucrative sector hit 75.5 percent in the last three months of the year, compared with 73 percent in the third quarter, Beijing-based Analysys International said in a statement.

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Baidu Starting to Reap Gains of Google’s China Exit

It did not take long for Baidu to show everyone it benefited from Google’s widely publicized departure from China operations earlier this year. The Chinese search engine giant announced its unaudited first quarter earnings that indicated an increase of more than half of its earnings in the past year.

First quarter revenues hit 1.294 RMB, 59.6 percent higher than the same period of 2009. Even more impressive were operating profits that jumped 530.8 million RMB (+167.4%) and net income was 480.5 RMB (+165.3%)

Traffic acquisition costs as a component of cost of revenues were CNY171.3 million, representing 13.2% of total revenues, as compared to 15.3% in the corresponding period in 2009 and 16.0% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

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Google, Yahoo, Bing Lost Search Engine Market Share in China in 2009

Even before the highly publicized news about Google’s bold plan to produce uncensored search results in China, its popularity in the mainland has been dwindling. This is according to iResearch, a local Chinese search consultancy firm.

In addition to Google losing search market share in mainland, Yahoo! and Bing also lost a certain portion of their slices in search popularity in China. Google had 18.9 per cent share of Web searches done in China in 2009, compared to 76 per cent enjoyed by Baidu. In terms of percentage points, Google’s share is down 1.8 per cent while Baidu gained 2.8 percentage points, iResearch said.

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Baidu Hacked by “Iranian Cyber Army”

China’s top search engine has been hacked Tuesday by alleged members of a pro-Iranian government group, according to state media.

The group which identifies itself as “Iranian Cyber Army” has replaced the immaculate white homepage of Baidu with a dark motif, map of the Middle East, blood-red text in English and Farsi and Iranian flag. The English text read “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army” and the Farsi message was translated as “In reaction to the US authorities’ intervention in Iran’s internal affairs. This is a warning”.

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