China’s web search hit 64.02 billion queries in Q4 2010, up 18.6% from Q4 2009, and down 3.8% from Q3 2010, according to iResearch.
Popular events such as the World Cup and the Asian Games caused the number of web searches to hit a high in Q3 2010.
On the other hand, search demands on shopping, travel and entertainment in the 4th quarter were “taken away” by various vertical search services.
Baidu still dominant, and growing
In Q4 2010, Google web search market share was 11.1%, down by 6.4 percentage points from 17.5% in Q4 2009. Baidu’s search market share continued to rise. In Q4 2010, its market share had risen to 83.6%, up 6.5 percentage points from Q4 2009.
Apart from the two oligarchs, minor players such as Soso and Sogou maintained stable market share. Both strengthened their power on the market through external cooperation, resource integration, product innovation and talent hunting. Apparently, Baidu gained more market share at the expense of Google China in the last quarter.
Besides the big players, vertical search services such as Etao and Souku are also providing more options to users in the area of shopping and video searches. We expect to see vertical search engines play a more dominant role in China’s online search market in 2011.
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