Sunday, January 22, 2006

Google Jumped ahead of Baidu

According to some limited channel source(warning, may not be representative), A salesperson from a channel reseller revealed some interesting data on search advertising sales in China.

1. Google is doing very well at about 40%

2. Baidu is doing OK, with a strong second place of 30%

3. Yahoo is losing market share due to the confusion of brands of 3721 and Alibaba

4. Sina and Sohu came in a combined 10%

It is indicated that Sina's service was very ineffective. Though Sohu's advertisement about their service can be seen in many places and their heavy spending on "Sogou", the search service is not making any impact yet.

source from Donews

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Surpassing 100 million, Chinese living connected

The "17th Survey on China's Internet Development" published on the 17th reported that, by the end of Dec 31, 2005, China's internet users reached 111 million. It saw a big increase of 17 million over the user base at the end of 2004. About 8.5% of the population now have access to internet. This compares with about 970 million internet users worldwide with 15.2% access rate.
The survey showes both the number of internet users and broadband access are ranked second in the world. The number of IP addresses has also reached number three in the world. Internet access fees also reached a record high of 100 billion yuan or about $12.5 billion.

Mao Wei from CNNIC commented that "China's internet had a giant leap in 2005".


Who's on the net?

Male, younger, higher education, higher income populations have the highest access rate. Rural area access rate is still a mere 2.6%.

What people do on the net?

Figure showes top three choices of being online:
1. News surfing(67.9%); 2. Search(65.7%); 3. Email(64.7%)

The survey found average internet user spends 15.9 hours each week, an increase of 2.7 hrs or 20.5% over last year. It indicates that people are more and more relied on the internet. The influence of the internet on people's lives are also emerged.

The survey also found average user spends monthly access fee of 103.6 yuan, or about $13.oo which does not include fees for other online services. On the category of online purchases, 61.5% of users are now willing to use online payment services while 36.1% are still only willing to pay on delivery.

The data indicates a very bright propect of China's internet market and development. "Internet is entering the mainstream of China's economy and becoming a strategic industry", added Mao.

Net Resources

Nationwide, the number of websites reached 694,200. It has increased by 25,300 in the year.

Domain names(including .cn, .com, .net, and .org top level names) reached 2,592,410. Domain names registered under .cn also broke record of one million (1,096,924). It increased 153.9% from 2004 and becoming the top choice for domestic applicants. The domain number is ranked way on top in Asia and 6th worldwide. The growth rate of .cn domain is also a wopping 8.8times higher than common domain names such as .com etc.

There is still huge potential for the growth of .cn domain. For example, there are only 2 domain names per thousand Chinese. While there are 150 domain names per thousand German.

Chinese source : szonline
All figures are from CNNIC.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Netease jumps on no apparent news

The news of purchasing of Target Media by Focus Media boosted almost all Nasdaq China concept shares yesterday.

The merger basically gave Focus Media a monopoly in China's outdoor video advertising market. Financial market liked the deal and pushed FMCN by 14.26% to $42.42 per share.

Comparing with Focus Media's rise, the jump in internet portal Netease's shares had nothing accounted for. Ever since Netease's management reduced earning projection for this quarter, the stock has been fallen hard. However, it is still the most expensive Chinese company listed on the Nasdaq. Yesterday, it closed at $67.01 with astonishing 13.76% gain. (it gained another 3.5% today). Netease indicated that the company had not released any earning related news before the stock's rise.

The rise in FMCN and NTES shares clearly boosted American investor's confidence. Shares of Sina, Shanda, C-trip, Tom.com, Sohu.com, China.com, Kongzhong, Linktone, SMI, Asianinfo, the9, Baidu, and VIMicro all gained more or less yesterday.

Reported from Beijing Morning News

Friday, January 06, 2006

Baidu Establishes Payment System

Jan 6, 2006 Chinese search engine Baidu announced that it has established online payment system. It indicates that the "free" Baidu is trying to start paid services for some of the internet users.

Baidu announced that, in the past half of the year, Baidu has signed online payment agreements with 23 companies including Shanda, China Merchandize Bank, Beijing Netcom and others. Through the agreements, Baidu's virtual currency "Baidu Money" will be able to freely exchangeable with Shanda and others' virtual currencies.

The establishment of Baidu's payment platform signals the acceleration of Baidu paid services. Baidu said that with the plarform and the tremendous amount of users, more and more paid services will be rolled out naturally.

Jianyue Zhang from Jinghua Times