We’re hearing reports that Sina Corp. has dropped Google as its search engine choice. The termination of Google search services was due to a contract expiry. Sina didn’t renew it and will replace Google’s search with its own technology.
The news didn’t come as surprise as Google’s search is slowly becoming a major failure in China. It all started a year ago when Google decided to stop censoring search results.
Things didn’t go well for Google since then. Baidu has claimed over 80 percent of China’s search market share while Google holds only 11 percent. Notice that the green portion kept eating into the yellow?
Google is losing its shine in China. The search engine previously said, “Search is only one piece of our business,” and it expects its mobile, map and ad business to continue growing in China. But don’t forget that search is Google’s core product and its cash cow.
Despite seeing a growing trend of Chinese exporters who are looking to expand business beyond China through Google, the search engine is also facing pressure from online marketplaces like Alibaba.com and Taobao.com as both gain international recognition. Chinese exporters will eventually have more options to expand their online business overseas and Google will eventually get phased out if it remains status quo, at least in my opinion.
The partnership termination between Sina and Google sends a hint to Google that changes have to be made if it wishes to continue growing with China. The first step is to starting working with the Chinese authorities, not against it. But it could too little too late for Google as relationship between both parties has soured in the last one year. The Gmail case is most recent conflict between Google and the authorities.
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