A new contender is headed to the Chinese search engine market, thanks to a recent deal by Xinhua News Agency and China Mobile. The companies have agreed to partner on the development of a search engine within the country but no further details have been released. If the project pans out, it could gobble up a portion of the market share occupied by Baidu and Google.
China Mobile is the largest mobile operator in China and the planet’s largest mobile carrier as measured by number of subscribers. Xinhua is a media agency controlled by the state. Neither has commented regarding whether the engine will be used for desktop or mobile Internet searches, or both. It could possibly be only for mobile broadband search capability within the Xinhua site, a much smaller scale project.
However, if the engine will be used for desktop searches, it stands some stiff competition. Reports from Analysys International state that Baidu, a Chinese company, controls 70 percent of the market share. With a 24.2 percent share, Google comes in second. According to Liu Ning, BDA technology consultant firm principal analyst, China Mobile and Xinhua do not have “any really strong resources that can help them compete with a leader like Baidu or Google.”
This is the second time that a media agency run by the state has attempted to enter this market. The official face of the Communist Party, People’s Daily, launched a beta version of a search engine in June. This engine, called People’s Search in Chinese, has not made much of a splash with the public to-date.
Taking advantage of the China Mobile customer base of over 554 million people would allow this new engine to make a much more substantial impact. So far, Xinhua has promoted the joint venture as a way to protect national interests rather than a business venture. To attract customers, the new search engine will need to be marketed from a different perspective and include mobile broadband access.
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