

Where Google Loses: How did Baidu outsmart Google? - cwan
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/29/where_google_loses?page=full

======
est
Just saw translation of this article on a Google fan site
<http://google.org.cn/posts/where-google-loses-in-china.html>

There's _not_ too many interesting lessons in Google's fail in China. From my
point of view it's just Google's ignorance.

Let me share my experience as a native Chinese. When young I learned how to
using computer and the Internet after the first grade in middle school, the
same time computers and Internet both went popular in all China. All things I
know about search engines were Yahoo. But it's domain sucks:
<http://cn.yahoo.com>. It's a damn hard and long English URL for average
Chinese. It does not even begin with www and <http://www.yahoo.com.cn> can not
be opened? WTF. If you want do Internet business in China at that time, at
least you should have a standard domain name like <http://www.company.com.cn>
and Chinese UI I think? Then there's Google (around 2002 I guess?). People
like the idea of 200,000,000 indexed pages, which is much more than Yahoo's
number I presume. But Google is even not an ordinary English word. Its
pronunciation is stupidly hard. Google even has some encoding problems with
Chinese webpages due to too many undeclared encoding during Chinese webpage
production. People's last choice? 3721.com or Baidu.com. 3721 is famous
because it's CNNIC's company, and there's a old saying in Chinese that 'No
matter 3x7=21', and it promotes a nice idea of 'Chinese domain name system'
(first as an IE plguin then later join the IDN standard as Punycode, but
overall it's adware and malware.). Baidu is and ordinary PinYin word which is
easy to remember.

Another reason to choose Baidu is because its site is very fast. Chinese
Internet connections were very slow in the beginning, and although Google's
page is very simple and clean, it still takes tons of time to load compared to
Baidu's Yahoo-like homepage

([http://web.archive.org/web/20020331055621/http://www.baidu.c...](http://web.archive.org/web/20020331055621/http://www.baidu.com/))

Then after 2002 or later Google.com is blocked, everyone is using something
else and people forget Google completely, until Kaifulee went back to China as
president of Google of Greater China in 2005.

One wise decision of Kaifulee is to acquire all former 3721's marketing
department, AdScene boosts well in Chinese market. So even though Google
China's market share is only half of Baidu's, it's keeps nearly the same
avenue as Baidu's without doing evil.

I see great chances of Baidu's fail, because there's still too much innovation
to be done in search engines, especially in Chinese culture, because Chinese
is very different language and way of thinking. Baidu's Chinese rivals,
Tencent SouSou search, Netease 163's YouDao search, Sohu SoGou search are all
very competitive and growing. But I don't see Google China is catching up,
because Google as a whole is too busy copy twitter. I heard from a inside
source that Google is even simulate twitter in one of their primary
productivity products. It's very likely that it will result too much of
Google's service chain get blocked in China to make Google useless even in
high-end users in Beijing and Shanghai. Since twitter, the primary 'color
revolution/peace revolution tool' used in Iran makes Chinese government
actively bans anything that has a connection with microblogging, and China has
already blocked all SSL connections to *.google.com days ago.

~~~
budu3
Thanks for the insight est. Looks like they didn't take into consideration all
the subtle cultural nuances in China. Goes to show that sometimes you can't
just transplant a U.S. centric company into China. Maybe they should have
launched with a series of Chinese acquisitions and a strong Chinese team.
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with being strong number 2.

~~~
Retric
_As a locally operated company we need to obey the Chinese law. If the law
determines that certain information is illegal, we need to remove it from our
index._

Baidu has close ties with the Chinese government and get's significant
preferential treatment. Google knows if they gain too much market share
without bending over backwards in China then they get messed with even more.
So, I suspect they are happy with a reasonable slice of the pie even if they
give up most of the market it's still profitable.

PS: While Google could do all the same things as Baidu it would cost them in
the far more lucrative global market.

------
zaphar
As far as I can tell the article Google hasn't so much lost to Baidu as simply
decided the cost of competing wasn't worth it. If censorship and government
blessing is the key to china success then I'm not so sure I want success in
that market.

~~~
est
> If censorship and government blessing is the key to china success then I'm
> not so sure I want success in that market.

google.cn is censored but google.com is not. And at least till now both of
them are accessible in China. Although Google is providing a censored version,
but one fact is important: a _contrast_. And a growing number of Chinese
people are beginning to notice the difference, which I believe is the key of
awakening brainwashed hive minded people.

~~~
cema
The trend is encouraging. But I am afraid it is reversible. In any case, I
wish them good luck.

------
jerryji
Let me tell you how --

From the top: government blessing, (biased) censorship

From the bottom: much more native friendly domain name, thirst of pirated
music, nationalism, ignorance

From the corporate itself: ferocious marketing and sales -- not everyone
realizes that THE most effective way of doing business in China is to hire as
many marketing and sales people as the number of the bullets Arnold
Schwarzenegger shoots, and I can assure you that it'll be much more effective
than his shooting/acting.

------
jusob
Baidu was indeed helped by the Chinese government. For example, google.com was
redirecting to baidu.com ([http://www.therawfeed.com/2007/10/chinese-
redirecting-google...](http://www.therawfeed.com/2007/10/chinese-redirecting-
google-yahoo.html) for example), Baidu can (could?) also help looking for
illegal mp3
([http://www.danwei.org/china_information/baidu_bidu_guide_bai...](http://www.danwei.org/china_information/baidu_bidu_guide_baidu_ipo_bai.php)),
etc.

------
haseman
How to outsmart Google? Easy in just a few steps:

First, overthrow whatever governmental system is currently in power.

Second, install a 'communist' government who is friendly to your business.

...

Profit!

------
known
Short story: Baidu colluded with Chinese regime.

~~~
cema
This seems to be only part of the story. (An important part.)

