Google’s China Exit Strategy

It’s now four years since Google made a decision to censor search results in China. In 2006, Google decided to launch the censored Google.cn search engine after its global site Google.com was perpetually down 10% of the time. Now, after the attacks and disconnection between the quality of results of Google China site and non-censored Google results elsewhere, the new stance to remove the filter is a commendable move. But it does not mean it makes much difference. A search engine user may then be able to see results not found in the past. But it does not mean he can outright access the site.

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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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Paid Search / PPC / SEM Jobs in Hong Kong

To all paid search professionals on a lookout for a new career, hear me out. One client of mine, an established multinational agency, is looking for paid search experts to take over new projects for recently won projects. The job location is in Hong Kong. No mention about relocation allowance for non-Hong Kong applicants.

Basic tasks and responsibilities
Develop search engine marketing strategies for existing and future clients
Improve efficiency, accuracy and quality of daily paid search campaigns
Foster relationships with colleagues and promoting the importance of paid search
Manage client expectations, build their trust and share market insights and knowledge with them
Coordinate with local and regional stakeholders, including search engines, developers, copywriters, designers and clients

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China Search Engine Market Share: 1st Qtr 2009

It looks like Google has broken the 30% search engine market share in China. As reported by Analysys International via ChinaTechNews, Google has achieved a market share of 30.6%, a historic high for the search engine giant.

As expected, Baidu is still on top with 59% market share. This is slightly lower than its reported share by last quarter of 2007. By introducing the MP3 search service, Google somehow attracted a portion of Baidu’s loyal users, the Analysys report said.

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China Search Engine Market Share in 2008

There seems to be no stopping the Baidu bandwagon in China as Baidu continued its dominance, according to China Internet Network In formation Center (CNNIC).

76.9% of search engine users in China choose Baidu as its first choice. Google captured 16.6 percent of Chinese search engine users last year, up from 14.3 percent the year before, China’s domain registry center said in the report released early March 2009.

The loyalty of first priority for Baidu search engine has hit 96 percent and other search engines have suffered decline of loyalty, in comparison with that in 2007.The number of Chinese users of search engin e has hit 203 million by the end of 2008, up 33.6 percent over 2007, according to the report.

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