Baidu still have the two big problem to be solved for search area.

As you know, Baidu is the biggest search solution provider in China. And actually, they have dominated the search market in China for a long time.

But recently, they are just facing the two big problems to be solved as follows.


1. Moblie Search Market

Chinese mobile search market share in the first quarter

Baidu  37.5%
SOSO   16.7%
easou   15.7%
Yicha   11.2%
Sogou    7.4%
Google China   6.3%
Youdao  2.3%
Roboo     1.8%
iask        1.3%



The above picture is the market share of the Chinese mobile search engine in the first quarter. According to this report, Baidu has 37.5% market share in Chinese mobile search engine market, and they occupy the leading position on there.
But as I explained before, they still don't have the overwhelming strength in the mobile area compared to the PC area.

Baidu has provided the special Smartphone that is adopted their own OS with partner since last year, and they established the LBS specific team in their company to accelerate their mobile solution. But compared the market share of last year, but it seems that their effort is not still rewarded.


2. Rise of the Qihoo 360
The following picture is the market share of the Chinese PC search market in the first quarter.

Baidu                68.32%
Qihoo 360       14.40%
Sogou                  8.35%
SOSO                   4.05%
Google China     3.75%
Bing China          0.64%
Yahoo China       0.32%
Youdao                0.28%
Other                   0.07%





As mentioned before, Baidu have the the overwhelming strength in the PC search market. But compared to the first quarter of 2012, their market share decreased 10.18%. The main reason is the existence of Qihoo 360.

Qihoo 360 started to provide their own search service from last August. They are gradually expanding their market share, and they got the 2nd position in this market in the first quarter.

But Qihoo 360 also have the problem to be solved for mobile search solution. They started to provide their own mobile search service from last November, but they couldn't still get the enough market share at the first quarter.


This report also said that Chinese mobile internet users already exceeded 300 million people in the first quarter.

I think that the fierce battle in the Chinese mobile search market still continues for the time being, and it seems that all of the fighters have a chance to win. We have to keep watching who will come through this fierce battle.


Source => Sootoo-1, Sootoo-2