Where will the Chinese search engine industry go?

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Baidu's recent bidding rankings in the online and network caused a lot of fluctuations, regardless of whether Baidu for some customers filter negative news, or artificial shielding some people do not want to participate in bidding rankings of the merchant website, this storm will undoubtedly become the Chinese search engine industry development watershed. As for whether or not these acts and the illegality, I dare not jump to comment. Now only from the search engine industry development and market competition angle to discuss the future of Chinese search engine industry. Baidu's recent bidding rankings in the online and network caused a lot of fluctuations, regardless of whether Baidu for some customers filter negative news, or artificial shielding some people do not want to participate in bidding rankings of the merchant website, this storm will undoubtedly become the Chinese search engine industry development watershed. As for whether or not these acts and the illegality, I dare not jump to comment. Now only from the search engine industry development and market competition angle to discuss the future of Chinese search engine industry.

A brief history of search engine industry and bidding rankings

Pay-per-click and PPC business models were first invented by Overture services (formerly GoTo.com) in 1998. The business model is based on the assumption that paid rankings can provide more relevant search results than other types of services, and that paying more sites is better than paying less. The internet had gone beyond academic research, and many internet users wanted to search through search engines for products or services they wanted to buy. This business model has been a great success, Yahoo and MSN and other portals are using Overture search engine services. Yahoo bought overture 1.63 billion dollars in 2003, then renamed the service Yahoo Search marketing.

Many search engines combine pay with natural search results, including Baidu, except Google. Google AdWords ads are completely separate from their natural search results and labeled "Sponsored links" to remind searchers to distinguish between paid and non-paying search results. Which way is more profitable, the result is self-evident. Search engines such as Yahoo and MSN are gradually abandoning the mix of pay and natural search, and then emulating Google, but are far behind. Yahoo launched a Panama (Panama) program similar to Google AdWords in 2007, but it was too late. Yahoo has fallen to this point and its search engine strategy has a lot to do with the mistakes.

User vs. Customer

A typical feature of Internet services is the simultaneous service of two distinct groups, namely, free service users and paid-for-service customers. This is particularly true of the search engine industry. Although search engine companies can not directly from the user to make money, but each user is valuable to them. Perhaps you think that you use Baidu or Google today to them irrelevant, but if tens of millions of individual users from one to the other at the same time, its power is immeasurable. Advertisers (search engine company customers) are willing to pay for this power, which is why search engines are so powerful. In fact, their strength is given by the vast number of users. If a search engine company does not realize this and abuses the force, he will sooner or later be discarded by the user.

For users, search results dependencies are most important. Users do not care about is paid or not paid pages, as long as the shortest possible time to find the information, users will be content. For advertisers, whether the site is in the middle or right of the search results page, as long as the top of the list can be search users see and click on the line. To make money, search engine companies naturally want to populate as many ads as possible on search results pages, which inevitably leads to a decline in search relevance. Balance the interests of users and customers to the search engine companies in a dilemma, and bid ranking this double-edged sword can protect themselves, may also hurt themselves.

Today, the Internet has developed into a new media, search engines have already gone beyond the function of the search tool alone. Search engine is not only the vast number of netizens to gather information and knowledge of the tool, but also to obtain news and understanding of the outside window. Even without legal requirements, search engines should be responsible for maintaining a fair and accurate media responsibility. In order to continue to win the trust of users, advertisers will naturally be more willing to pay.

The smart thing about Google is that he realizes it. Although the company has announced its ambition to search for everything and information around the world, it has so far kept its motto ' Don't become evil ' (don ' be Evil). Perhaps Google's founders really learned from the Anakin Skywalker of Star Wars and had to remind themselves not to turn from the light to the dark, from justice to evil. You know, sometimes justice and evil are just the difference.

Although the world's mainstream search engine has abandoned the natural search and paid search hybrid practices, but if Baidu still insists on bidding rankings is understandable, as long as the law is not expressly prohibited. What business model to take is the company's own choice, which search engine to use is also the user's own choice. The final choice is determined by the market.

Comparison of search engine market: China vs. USA

2007 U.S. search engine market size of about 13 billion U.S. dollars (equivalent to about 90 billion yuan), Google accounted for about 60% of the market share. Even if it's only a 1% share, it's worth 130 million dollars. No wonder Ask.com and other small search engines still don't give up the market, knowing their market share is negligible.

China's search engine market in 2007 reached 2.9 billion yuan, of which Baidu accounted for about 60%, and Google accounted for only about 20%. Although the Chinese market is small compared to the U.S. market, it is growing much faster than the US. China's search engine market is expected to reach 5 billion yuan in 2008.

Google's market share in the United States is still growing, even if Yahoo and Microsoft Search business merge, also less than half of Google. As a result, the US market pattern has been set. As for the Chinese market, although Baidu is the market leader, but I think it is premature to assert that the Chinese market pattern has been set.

Competition is always the source power of industry and market development. The United States market has formed an exclusive monopoly, which is not good for the long-term healthy development of the market. I think the Chinese market is expected to appear a number of potence situation, that is, none of them have the power to dominate the market. This will exacerbate market competition and technological innovation and promote faster industry development. The ultimate winner is the user, which is beneficial to the development of China's society as a whole and the Internet.

While users are the biggest winners, search-engine service companies and advertisers are also profitable, as the industry is growing fast. The search engine will grow by encroaching on the traditional media market, and the newspaper industry may be the first to take the brunt. The traditional newspaper industry in the United States is in rapid decline, although China is not yet obvious, but within 3-5 may emerge.

The future development trend of Chinese search engine industry

The author thinks the search engine should put the user in the first place, the customer is second. Search results are the main product, and making money is a by-product. If the primary and secondary reversal, the consequences imaginable.

Google is clear about the reason, so we can achieve today's status. I hope Google will not be controlled by the Devil Satan, the money, or the danger of becoming evil.

In the long run, this confidence crisis may be good for Baidu if the company can learn from it. As for whether the company abandons its bid rankings and whether it can get rid of the dilemma of relying solely on this cash cow, only they know about the market competition themselves.

Through the bidding rankings, advertisers (especially small and medium-sized advertisers) should recognize that bidding rankings or search marketing is not synonymous with network marketing. Spending money on visits is only half the story, and it costs a lot to pay. The other half overlooked by most Chinese advertisers is how to convert the amount of traffic they buy into real sales. This requires advertisers to allocate part of the network marketing budget to website design, natural search optimization, site statistical analysis, and web testing and overall site optimization. Only the overall coordinated development, can obtain the best marketing effect.

Chinese search engine industry will start to diversify and vertical niche market development. Universal search cannot meet all the needs of all users. The segmentation Industry Search service will attract more branch market users. Referring to the development of American search engine market, the author predicts that the following market search engine services will rise in the Chinese market. Although these subdivision search services cannot compete with universal search, they still have a lot of room for development.

Shopping search engine-with the development of China's E-commerce market, more retail businesses will vigorously expand online sales business, small and medium-sized online stores will also be springing up. The dedicated shopping search engine will offer a one-stop shopping service for shoppers at no charge, and online marketers can also show their products and services to shoppers through this channel.

Local search-local small and medium-sized enterprises this large and dispersed market has been the mainstream search engine Company's heart. Despite a lot of input, there has not been a search pattern for local business needs so far. Silicon Valley's zvents.com company is trying to do this, hoping he will succeed. Local search engine services with Chinese characteristics may also emerge in the Chinese market.

Industry vertical search engines--such as healthcare, finance and software--will have their own industry search engines. This kind of search engine can provide more in-depth and detailed information than the general search, so as to meet the special needs of the professionals in the line.

Semantic (semantic) search-unlike traditional search engines such as Google, which uses ranking algorithms to predict the relevance of Web pages, semantic search uses semantics (meaning of natural language) to generate the most relevant search results. The search is still in its infancy and there are no mature technologies or services. However, if China wants to keep up with the world advanced level in the development of search engine technology, it must support and encourage the exploration and innovation in this field.

Source: http://www.intematrix.cn/| Hui Heng Digital marketing Author: Intematrix Source: Http://www.intematrix.cn/blog/intematrix_blog_search_ Marketing-baidu_china_search_engine_industry reprint, please retain the source, Copyright Hui Heng Digital Marketing.