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News Details
The mobile search in China is the next challenge Google 2009-10-17
The new conquest of the search giant is very close to the hands of users. As China enters a new generation of smart phones and third-generation networks, Google and Baidu are changing their battlefield from internet search by mobile phone, which promises billions of dollars in revenue.
But experts say that market value is difficult because the future benefits could take years because of the lack of clear business models, possible competition and political risk in China for its strict controls on the media market.
"Everything is growing very quickly, but who will enrich ¨ now?" Said Wallace Cheung, an analyst at Credit Suisse. "The market (mobile search) is so diverse, even world there is no business model yet sure," he added.
Google, the second long-distance market in the Chinese Baidu search through computers that moves an estimated 1.8 trillion yuan (264 million dollars) is the world leader in revenue through mobile search and is determined not to relinquish control in the Chinese market. Google recently said it expected that searches over mobile beyond those searches across computers in a few years.
The search market via mobile in China, who lead the two companies with a 26 percent stake each, has enormous potential because of the more than 600 million customers subscribed to more than double from 338 million Internet users.
The billions of dollars in revenue could be a great game if the market development follows a line similar to that of Internet search on computers.
According to government figures, at the end of June this year in China had 155 million Internet users via mobile and more than 40 million of them using a search engine. The number of mobile Internet market in China have far exceeded the United States, where there were only 40 million users earlier this year, according to a report by JP Morgan. "For the mobile search market, the numbers are still small but the growth potential is extremely high," said Baidu's chief technology Yinan Li told Reuters in a recent interview.
The advertising industry through China Mobile was valued at some 754 million yuan (about $ 111 million) last year and will be at nearly double in 2010. The volume of mobile searches grew by 120 percent in the second quarter to 272 million contacts, according to Analysys International. But carrying money all these contacts can be a challenge.
"We hope that the added value of the mobile industry in China will have another two or three years of rapid growth with an annual rate of 22 percent from 2009 to 2012," said Alan Hellawell, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in a note. " The deployment of 3G networks will allow a much wider market and profound, "he said.
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