Lee Kai-Fu's main knife: Google's Chinese SAR: first music-related search

In the face of the huge online music service market, Google has been reluctant to enter the market. In the world, Google has the most powerful competitor Apple, and its "terminal + content" model has been highly recognized by users. In China, Google faces the same dilemmas as Apple, the copyright issue cannot be solved, or the charge for genuine music cannot be solved. After two years of exploration, the Chinese team headed by Google Greater China CEO Lee Kaifu finally found a unique "genuine + free" Chinese path.

On June 18, March 30, Google China announced the release of free genuine music search for Chinese users. For a long time, Google has not been involved in the Chinese music search market due to copyright concerns. Google is therefore regarded by the industry as "too conservative" in its Chinese market strategy ". This has also become an important reason why Google is "defeated" Baidu in the Chinese market. According to data from iResearch, Baidu had a market share of more than 2008 in the Chinese market by the end of 70%.

The "genuine + free" model is unique to Google in the world. From product planning, R & D, to partner negotiation, the team headed by Lee Kai-fu is solely responsible, and Google headquarters is only responsible for budget and allocation. Lee Kai-Fu said in an interview with our reporter that he had personally participated in Sony's copyright negotiation. On the evening of June April 14, Hong Feng, product manager for Google's music search project, said in an interview with our reporter: "China is Google's first region in the world and the only region to launch music search ."

Due to China's huge potential opportunities, the uniqueness of China and the European and American markets, and Google's unique competitive environment in China, Google China needs to operate in China. Regional music search is a part of Lee Kai-Fu's Google's "" in China. Kai-Fu Li revealed: Our team reported the product to Google's global CEO Schmidt. After reading the report, he was very excited and expressed strong support. Li Kaifu added: He is very familiar with the situation in China.

Test music search

"Google has always been aware of the importance of music search. The reason why it is not eager to launch music search is that it has been searching for a good model that must meet the 'free + leg' conditions, if it is not free, it cannot be recognized by netizens. Illegal laws may cause legal risks. There is a reason why Google's "conservative" in music search ." On June 23, March 27, Lee Kai-Fu, president of Google Greater China, explained in an interview with our reporter.

There is a huge demand for music search among Chinese netizens. According to a report from CNNIC, more than 0.2 billion of search engine users primarily aim at leisure and entertainment. In the search for leisure and entertainment, music search has the highest selection rate, up to 32.6%. Google's lack of music search has become a weakness in the Chinese market ". How to solve the copyright dispute in music search becomes the biggest obstacle for Google to enter the music market.

One day in early 2007, Guo Xiaoji, then assistant to the president of Google Greater China, and Hong Feng, product manager, entered the office of Lee Kaifu, president of Google Greater China. The latter proposed that, use the business model based on the genuine content platform to test the music search service. Google's final selection of "genuine content platform" is the partner of Google's music search-whale music network.

Juwhale Music Network was founded in September 2005 by Chen Ge, senior music industry practitioner, Zhang Mingji, leader of Yao Ming's business team, and Yao Ming, basketball star. The company claims to have established the largest genuine music database in China.

"Google provides technology, and the (music copyright) contract is negotiated by the whale, so it is absolutely genuine ." Lee Kai-Fu told this reporter that the cooperation opened up a new model for three-party ad sharing between Google, whale music and recording companies.

Hong Feng said: "Google, a technology-focused company, is not good at facing China's complicated copyright market. Introducing professional platforms can effectively avoid risks ." In this cooperation mode, juwhale music network has become a "safe haven" for Google to enter music search ".

To this end, China has become a "SAR" of Google's global strategy ". Baidu, China's biggest competitor, uses the safe haven principle to provide massive music searches. Kai-Fu Lee said: Google's first provision of genuine music search will surely have an impact on other non-genuine music searches.

China's "SAR" campaign

"This is the first time that Google has launched a product for Chinese users in the world ." Said Lee Kai-Fu. Currently, Google Music Search can only be downloaded from IP addresses in China. "Before we made this product, we may have to consider the competitive environment and the possibility of success. Therefore, our team in the United States has never considered this (music search) as a huge development direction ." Said Kai-Fu Li.

Google and Kai-Fu Lee in China suffered a completely different "competitive environment" from the U.S. market ". The first is the proliferation of pirated music, which largely compresses the space for survival of genuine music resources; the second is that Chinese users are used to experiencing Internet services for free, this makes it difficult to implement paid music downloads like Apple's iTunes in China.

As the "manager" of Google's Greater China region, what Kai-Fu Lee needs to do is to make Google more and more Chinese and more suitable for the Chinese market. In fact, in the past four years, Lee Kai-Fu and his Google China have spared no efforts.

The first step is to set up a localized team, which is the first task of Lee Kai-Fu in Google China. The second step is to find partners in China. Among them, Kingsoft, Tianya community, China Mobile, China Telecom, Xunlei, Sina, and 265.com all cooperate with Google in different forms. The third step is to establish a localized sales team. Liu Yun, vice president of Google worldwide, said in an interview with our reporter: "After completing product and talent preparation, Google began to localize its sales ."

From technological innovation to application innovation, from pure technology-driven to technology-driven, market-driven combination, Google's Chinese mark is getting heavier and heavier. This change has also ushered in a rare market breakthrough for Google. According to data from iResearch, Google's search engine market share in China increased from 2008 to 17.2% in 20.7%.

Despite its slight increase in market share, Google's Chinese market share is still quite different from that of Baidu's 73.2% market share. Google China must be "more bold" in its practice to launch products and services targeting the Chinese market. Music search is what distinguishes Google from the global market. It is a breakthrough in the "SAR" movement in China.

"(Music search) the entire project, from decision-making in the early stage to project establishment, to technology R & D and launch, was independently proposed and completed by Google's Chinese team ." Hong Feng told this reporter that Google China only reported the special Chinese market environment and the intention to launch music search to its headquarters, and the headquarters quickly replied: "This is a trial worth trying."

Revenue is the final truth

In stark contrast to Google's past "cautious" practices in the music search business field, Baidu is singing along the way in the Chinese market with its "bold" music search strategy. According to data from iResearch, Baidu has a market share of more than 90% in China's MP3 search market. According to a Chinese search engine user behavior research report by CNNIC, Baidu's preferred Internet users in China primarily favor Baidu's leisure and entertainment search. Among them, the penetration rate of music search users is the highest, reaching 63.7%.

Hong Feng told reporters that although Google's music search is not as good as its competitors, "however, every search connection provided by Google's music search is basically a valid connection. Therefore, the user experience will be better ."

Respecting "user experience" is the "American School" inherited by Google China. Even in the "bidding ranking" field, Baidu has obtained the largest market share of "keyword advertisement" by setting the bidding promotion result at the same end as the normal search result, google still insisted on strictly distinguishing normal search results from "keyword promotion.

"Search experience is the top priority. Google will not damage users' normal search experience because of advertising and marketing ." Liu Yun, vice president of Google worldwide, said in an interview with this reporter.

Google, which insists on user experience, is gradually gaining recognition from the Chinese market. On June 18, the Chinese search engine users and market research report published by the consulting service is expected to show that in the past year, baidu's market share in the above three regions fell by 0.9%, while Google rose by 0.1% to 27%. Soon afterwards, Baidu suffered the most serious credit crisis in the Chinese search engine industry.

However, the profit pressure is the price Google pays for its "America" insistence. Three years after Google was founded in Greater China, in November 2008, Liu Yun told reporters: "At present, Google is still expanding the market in China to cultivate user experience, and profit is not a spot goal ." In contrast, in 2008, Baidu's annual business profit was about 1.0967 billion yuan, a 2007 increase from 100.4%.

Google is still facing a profit test in China's "SAR" test of music search. According to the analysis of CNNIC's "China search engine user behavior research report", Google users prefer to focus more on their search functions on professional tools, in particular, Google's search for professional materials, foreign language information, and commercial information has a penetration rate of about 20% to music users.