Alright, let’s dive into the bustling, ever-evolving world of search engines in China as we look ahead to 2024. And when we talk search engines in China, we’ve gotta start with the heavyweight champion—Baidu.
Baidu: The Undisputed Leader
Baidu? It’s not just a search engine; it’s the kingpin of digital search in China. Imagine this: you’re not just going online; you’re “Baidu-ing” it. That’s right, Baidu is so ingrained in Chinese internet culture, it’s become a verb. Founded back in 2000, Baidu has dominated the Chinese internet space, serving up everything from search to news, and cloud services to AI innovations. It’s not just about finding stuff; it’s about driving the tech frontier in China.
With a massive share of the search engine market in China, Baidu isn’t just sitting on its laurels. It’s constantly innovating, pushing deeper into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and autonomous driving. For brands, businesses, and even the average Joe, if you want to tap into the Chinese market, you start with Baidu. It’s where search meets innovation.
The Challengers
But hold up, the search engine saga in China isn’t a one-player game. We’ve got some serious contenders:
- Sogou: Coming in strong, Sogou, backed by tech giant Tencent, is not just playing; it’s playing to win. With advanced AI integrating into its search functions and a strategic partnership with WeChat, Sogou is a go-to for users leveraging WeChat for searches. It’s savvy, it’s slick, and it’s gaining ground.
- Shenma: Then there’s Shenma, which is more than just a search engine; it’s mobile-first. Focused primarily on mobile internet users, Shenma capitalizes on the massive shift to mobile, offering tailored, location-based search options for the on-the-go user.
- 360 Search (Qihoo 360): Don’t count out 360 Search, the safety-first search engine. Known for its integrated internet security features, it offers a safe browsing experience, which is a big sell in the cybersecurity-aware market.
Wrapping Up
Looking ahead to 2024, the search engine market in China is not just about searching; it’s about integrating technology into every facet of life. From AI to mobile, safety to innovation, if you’re looking to understand the digital pulse of China, keep your eyes on these players. Baidu might be leading the pack, but the race is heating up. Get ready; it’s going to be a thrilling ride in the tech-fast lane!
Baidu is the search engine that rages in China representing a little over 80% of market share, it could be the star of the Chinese Web for 2 years, thus invading the majority of the Chinese population. The Chinese are hyper connected people, besides where you wander in China, you will see that all categories of age combined have the eyes transferred to their phone, whether to do research (Baidu), talk with friends and relatives, or pay bills (WeChat), in short the Chinese are more connected than ever.
Thus, the digital is growing strongly in this region, and the local or foreign brands understand it well, everyone goes digital to capture the attention of users, and the big trend is mobile marketing, since it is the tool most used by the Chinese.
Figures and facts: The digital ad market
The digital advertising market will realize more than 100 billion US dollars this year, hmm … one wonders who will be the biggest beneficiary, Baidu you tell me well it’s missed, since Toutia Jinry who is also a search engine with weight on the Chinese population with a little nearly 120 million active users, it breaks a little too much market share of the giant Baidu who achieved last year, a gain of 64.5 billion yuan of advertising, namely 0.8% more than last year. Realizing a drop in advertising activity of 6.7%
Releasing the place to Toutiao which yielded 6 billion RMB in terms of revenue from streaming commercials. In 2018 the founder and CEO of the company, Zhang Yiming, set the target of 20 billion RMB.
We can explain the fall of the Chinese giant not by the form of advertising it presents but by the advertisers themselves. They have converted to digital advertising but do not have enough notoriety on the market, so it is small and medium businesses that want to be known and have obviously opted for the giant! But this does not work in favor of Baidu, since the big companies even more known go directly to the competitor who naturally achieves larger market shares.
These brands no longer target the users in the same way, they do not stop with the intention to purchase but seeks to attract attention and especially their interests, they do so through social platforms or even news feeds such as WeChat by reflecting on global digital marketing trends.
The scandal!
Also the anecdote of the death of the cancerous who sought medical treatment in an existing medical institution on the search engine Baidu, all are elements that have favored the fall of the profit of the giant to 34.1% compared to the last year.
So, that pushed the Chinese government to introduce restrictions on medical and health product advertising. Baidu does not abandon the game by creating its own feed ads and is developing custom news services
Toutiao’s model is all the rage for WeChat, which in turn is inspired by “Take a look, Take a look”. Take a look is also a popular search engine.
Wechat is the ideal partner of any business man, it has so many features to make known the company but still to generate leads, the example of “Wechat wallet” is the most relevant to understand the mechanism of this source of Gold ! Yes … I’ll call it that way!
Through Wechat wallet, people can share coupons, just by scanning the QR code, so all the friends of the person who shared the voucher, can see that, without having targeted them before, which will generate you more money. audience for free, and why not lead by the way!
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“Take a search, take a look”
WeChat takes advantage of the search engine model “Take a search”, and that of “Take a look” which is a feature on Toutiao, so this is what make the two models Toutiaocloser to Wechat and achieves more revenue compared to Baidu.
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