Microsoft China's search strategy: avoiding Baidu and Google

Sina Technology news in the early morning of January 13 news, Microsoft yesterday in Beijing launched for Chinese users Live Search Spring Festival Search service, officially blow the horn to enter the Chinese Search market. Microsoft's managing director of the Asian Search Technology Center, Mai Sidi, also made his first public appearance yesterday and revealed a different line between Microsoft's Chinese search and Google and Baidu.

Microsoft's two-year Chinese search

Microsoft Live Search started in 2006 and has been using services such as web pages, images, videos, information, local and map, popularity charts, and mobile phone Search, we have also launched Wenchuan earthquake maps and Olympics topics for the Chinese market. In terms of cooperation, China Telecom and Lenovo have successively reached cooperation relations.

In fact, Microsoft Live Search in the United States can put a certain amount of competition pressure on Google and Yahoo, but due to market strategic reasons, its Live Search in China has been low debugging and pushing test versions, it is difficult to compete with giants such as Google China and Baidu.

For example, after two years of "trial" in the Chinese search market, Microsoft was unable to generate a proud transcript in front of the media. In the face of the media's fierce pursuit of the "market share in China" issue, Masidi responded with an "inconvenient comment.

"We cannot comment on market share unless a third-party organization announces it ." Said Masidi. However, Baidu and Google jointly account for more than 80% of their shares in the report released by multiple research institutions in China. Microsoft's Chinese search has never ranked among the statistics.

Masidi pointed out that Microsoft will strive to increase its market share and has made specific measures. First, we need to provide high-quality services to our customers to meet their needs. Second, through cooperation to increase their share, Microsoft has already cooperated with global companies such as Dell and SUN, we hope to develop more Chinese partners, such as China Telecom and Lenovo. However, McGrady did not disclose Microsoft's capital investment in these areas.

Also vague issues include Microsoft's long-term goal in the Chinese search market and its specific business model. Microsoft is still in the early stage in the Chinese search market, and it is still early to talk about the commercial market layout. At present, the primary task is to launch products to meet the needs of users and the market.

According to reports, there are hundreds of R & D employees engaged in Chinese Search and advertisement products for Live Search on the team side. The team is affiliated with Microsoft's Asian Search Technology Center, which started from Microsoft's Asian Research Institute in 2006 and is headed by Microsoft's global Live Search division. In the future, the team will continue to expand and provide support for global search technologies.

"Microsoft hopes to build a world-class search R & D team to gain an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture, local market and user needs, and develop services that users really need. Learn with humility and make a bold attempt. The latest and coolest technology is introduced to Chinese users to create a new generation of search experience ." Said Masidi.

Avoid Baidu and Google

Speaking about the future competition with Baidu, Google, and other inevitable topics, Masidi has his own views. He said that Baidu and Google have done very well in the Chinese market, and Microsoft, as a latecomer, must launch differentiated products to improve competitiveness.

"We will consider some special needs in China and use our unique development and research capabilities to make some innovations, we hope to use this advantage to better develop products suitable for China's special needs." Masidi believes that Microsoft has a long history and has outstanding performance in some market segments, hoping to continue to use its technical capabilities to expand the search market.

As to whether it is more attractive than Google and Baidu services, he believes that the answer lies in the hands of customers. It is worth noting that in October 2007, Shen Xiangyang, senior vice president of Microsoft and chief scientist of Internet search and advertisement division, once told Sina Technology that, at that time, Microsoft released the new English Live generic search version, which had a very small gap with Google. In some vertical fields, the search version had already exceeded any competitor ".

In fact, this differentiated line referred to by msidi has been reflected in Microsoft's latest Live Search Spring Festival Search service. For example, during the Spring Festival, Microsoft launched a daily updated special theme background on the Live Search homepage, setting a festive atmosphere. This kind of access speed sacrifice for personalization is quite different from the simple homepage that Google and Baidu have continued for many years.

Liu Zhiyang, the development director of Microsoft's Asian Search Technology Center, told Sina Technology about this "adventure", which is a clear manifestation of Microsoft's differentiation strategy. Microsoft wants to seek breakthroughs in the Chinese search market, differentiation is required. In this regard, the Microsoft headquarters fully authorizes the Chinese team.

Masidi stressed that Microsoft's Chinese search gave users three promises: providing the best search results, simplifying the information search required for users to complete their tasks, and operating innovative search services, this will be the focus of Microsoft's Chinese search team.

He also told Sina Technology that the previous "tug-of-war" with Yahoo's purchase case would not affect Microsoft's established search strategy. "Our company has officially published its point of view. It officially terminated its merger with Yahoo. However, it will cooperate with other companies and our executives are working hard for it. However, cooperation with Yahoo is only an element of our partner's strategy. We will explore more elements in the future ." Said Masidi. (Quanzhi)