Beijing, China — The ever growing high-tech industry have agreed that the mobile market is key in China. Baidu, which is trying to fend off a challenge from Google, which is playing greater role in introducing its web experience into phones in the Chinese mobile search market, is rolling out a new mobile service application that it will pre-install on handsets, which it describes as the “most important product in its mobile strategy,” into the fastest growing China’s mobile search market.
Unlike the web search market, which it continues to command, Baidu is laced-up with Google for the lead in the country’s mobile search market. Although, China Mobile, the biggest carrier in the country, which has unhesitatingly adopted Android with one hand, but then altered almost every aspect of it to create its own branded user experience and store.
Baidu has recently responded with deals to introduce a new mobile search engine in the first half of 2010, which can be preloaded on handsets, along with associated Baidu products, on 3G phones sold by rival carriers China Unicom and China Telecom — which as Google well knows, is the most effective way to boost uptake and create momentum behind related applications.
Mobile phones pre-installed with Baidu Palm application should appear on the market shortly as the company has already reached deals with handset makers, a Baidu representative said in an e-mail late Friday. The new app dubbed as Baidu Palm — “hooks users into its search, message board and question-and-answer online services.” It is currently in beta and is expected to come pre-installed on some phones “soon,”.
Google and Baidu are competing to lure users for their mobile versions in an outgrowth of their rivalry in online search. The Chinese web search leader already supports about 70% of online searches in its homeland, compared to Google’s 20%, says local research firm IntelliConsulting, and it also has its sights set on other markets, especially those with high levels of Chinese speaking. Additionally, both the heavy-weights have fought with rival products thus far, such as their free music download search services — something offered by Google in China only — and their focus on the mobile sector is growing.
Several handset makers have already signed a pact with Baidu, the firm says — it would not reveal names, but Nokia is an obvious suspect, given that the Chinese firm started work over a year ago on a mobile search platform to be embedded in Nokia phones as a WidSets widget. Baidu is already Nokia’s main web search partner in Chinese speaking markets.
This could put intense pressure on Google in east Asia, where it has already lost out in many carrier home-screen deals to Yahoo. However, Google has made more progress on the mobile front than the PC in China — the same research firm says the two companies accounted for about 26% apiece of the 270m mobile web searches carried out in the second quarter this year.
In October, Baidu made an alliance with China Unicom to preload search and other web services on its 3G devices. As well as conventional search tools, the new application will also link users to Baidu’s message board and online Q&A services, and over time is likely to include integration with location and presence awareness, and social networks, like other search majors.
It seems that we will soon witness another big flare-up in the Google-Baidu war, then. Do not count on Google taking too long to respond.
The Big Yellow Book has now become obsolete as Search Engine Optimization is the most successful method to find products and services online.