CNNIC reports Baidu with 74.5% Market Share

Sept.25, Chinese Internet Network Information Center(CNNIC) released it's 2007 reports on Chinese search engine market in the 2007 Chinese Internet Conference. This is the third year in a roll that CNNIC has produced the report. Detailed data on different user communities and cities with different development levels are the spotlights of this year's report.

This year's report covers three top cities, seven second-level cities, and fourteen third-level cities in all the seven regions of the country. The survey covered broader area with stronger sample representations. Through cross analysis between different user communities and different level of cities, the user behavior on search applications can be interpreted. The report indicated that the top choice selection of Baidu goes the opposite direction with the level of cities. Google's trend was opposite to that of Baidu. The ratio of selecting of Baidu as first choice among the level 1, 2 and 3 cities were 67.33%, 73.35%, 83.82%. The ratio for Google were 22.11%, 14.78%, 4.99%.

CNNIC report shows that 44.71% of users use search routinely(multiple times per day). It indicates almost half of internet users are dependent on search. Besides that, there are also 17.2% of users use search only once per day. That bumps up search engine users to as high as 61.91% of total internet users and trends toward stronger dependence on search engines.

From year 2000, the number of search engine users were growing at about 12% per year. The growth rates started to slow since 2006 with only 11.32%. So far this year up to Sept. 2007, the new search users has increased 7.7%. CNNIC predicts the growth rate will be slightly downward for the whole year.

(Note: There might be error in CNNIC's prediction. Since Sept. is not finished yet, the data cannot possibly include this month and it is reasonably to assume no data from the entire month due to time requirement to finish their report. If the growth of new users distributes evenly during the year, 7.7% X 12 / 8 would result in a growth rate of 11.55% which is higher than that of 2006. Additionally, since schools start in Sept., it can also reasonably assume the biggest month of new user growth is Sept.)

CNNIC reports found that as a first choice of search engine, Baidu's market share had reached 74.5%. Google had only 14.3%. However, among high end users, Google's market share of 42.32% is not much different from Baidu's 47.72%. High end users are defined as "25 and older, college graduates, monthly salary above 3000 yuan".

CNNIC reports also found "word of the mouth" was the main factor for search engine brand recognition with 54.03%. Found search engine while "surfing" was second factor with 41.33%. There were only 8.05% of users got to know search engines through embedded search window on their frequently visited web sites. Even lower percentage of users got acquainted with search engines through online advertising. That number came in at 7.81%.

From Hexun (in Chinese)