This week, Microsoft announced a major partnership with Chinese search engine provider Baidu. Horst Joepen, CEO of search analytics company Searchmetrics looks at what this means for the market, and in particular for Microsoft’s ongoing attempts to overhaul Google in search.
Baidu, the dominant Chinese search engine, has just announced a major tie-up with Microsoft. This will see Microsoft’s Bing powering all Baidu’s English language search results, extending the reach of Bing and the volume of searches it underpins.
Given Baidu’s strength in China, this looks like a key part of Microsoft’s strategy to extend Bing to challenge Google, the runaway global search engine market leader.
The last six months has seen Microsoft try a number of innovative ways to close the gap on Google in the search engine market, from deepening its integration with Facebook to extending Bing to new platforms such as the Xbox 360 and investing in its webmaster tools program.
This latest partnership helps it make further inroads – providing access to a market that currently has 450 million internet users, where Google is weak. Bing now has around 30 per cent of the North American market and this agreement will increase market share outside core territories as well as providing greater ad revenues from search results.
While this isn’t a killer blow for Google, it is a statement of how seriously Microsoft is about growing its search market share both in China and across the globe.
By Horst Joepen
CEO
Searchmetrics
www.searchmetrics.com
