Google Poses Strong Challenge to Leader Baidu in China, Reports Keynote
Google Inc.’s simpler homepage design and more relevant search results give it a chance of overtaking China’s leading search engine Baidu, a Web metrics firm said.
A groundbreaking new study from Keynote Systems, The Internet Performance Authority, shows Google in a strong position to challenge Baidu in the Chinese search engine market despite the distinct brand recognition and market share advantages Baidu currently holds in that market.
In a study released recently of 1,200 online Chinese consumers, Keynote Systems found that once they were exposed to Google, the people had an "overwhelmingly positive" search experience, and generally preferred the site to competitors, including Baidu. The latter homegrown search engine currently attracts 48 percent of Internet users in China, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.
The study provides firm evidence that the tremendous success Google has enjoyed in English-speaking markets appears transferable to the rapidly growing Chinese market. With billions of investment dollars riding on Chinese search in both the U.S. and Chinese stock markets and with the search leaders themselves in the U.S. and China forming alliances with and against each other as they aggressively jockey for position, the study’s implications are far-reaching.
Besides Baidu and Google, Keynote also studied Alibaba/Yahoo and Sohu/Sogou, and found that Google outperformed its competitors in 11 of the 13 business success drivers measured in the study. Alibaba/Yahoo and Baidu, however, were close competitors in more than half of the 13 categories.
For the customer experience component of the study, Keynote examined 1,200 Chinese consumers as they searched and performed relevant tasks on leading Chinese search sites and then benchmarked the sites in more than 250 categories including those for news, image, products and music search. For the service level portion of the study, Keynote took more than 13,000 measurements of each site’s responsiveness and reliability from different geographical regions of China over a four-week period from mid-November to mid-December 2005.
Google, however, ranked highest in the all-important category of relevant search results. Fully 68 percent of consumers described the company as a "high quality" search site, compared with 61 percent for Baidu and Alibaba/Yahoo, Keynote said. As a result, consumers were more likely to make Google their primary search engine, return to the site and/or use its search toolbar.
The Alibaba/Yahoo!, Baidu, Google and Sohu/Sogou search sites were included in the study. Keynote has conducted similar studies in North America, where Google and Yahoo! are the clear market leaders both in terms of market share and user experience. Similarly, Keynote has committed to conducting an annual study on search in China, which will be particularly important in order to track user preferences and technical performance over time in a dynamic and fast-changing market.
Google is a Winner among Chinese Consumers and is Poised to Capture Market Share
Baidu holds a clear lead in the Chinese market in terms of usage and brand recognition, said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote. However, we see that Chinese consumers really like the overall Google experience better. Eventually, this promises to translate into increased market share, particularly given Google’s strong resources and focus on the market.
Google topped the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an aggregate ranking of the consumer appeal of leading Chinese search engines based on an analysis of the 250 metrics measured during the study.
In fact, Google outperformed its competitors in 11 of the 13 business success drivers measured in the study, including those for general search, news search and image search.
But Alibaba/Yahoo! and Baidu were close competitors with Google in more than half of the 13 business success driver categories studied. Baidu ranked highest with consumers in the music search category, while Alibaba/Yahoo! was first for help and instructions.
Google’s simpler homepage and overall Web design than rivals’ was also an advantage, given that 37 percent of Chinese consumers expressed dissatisfaction with results on sites that were too cluttered, Keynote said. Fully, 35 percent were unhappy with ads or sponsored results distracting them from actual search results.
Google’s strengths in the general market–simplicity of design, strong perceived results relevance and unobtrusive advertising — are also its strength in the Chinese market and key factors in its appeal to consumers.
Those sites that are developing in the Chinese market need to focus more on the simplicity of design and clear presentation of search results. They need to also be cautious about too much advertising for short term revenue versus less obtrusive advertising and long term market share potential, said Brown.
The appeal of the search site’s homepage actually has the biggest impact on consumers’ perceptions and intentions for future usage. Here, Google and Yahoo! also outpace their Chinese competitors because of the simplicity of design.
Homepage appeal and design may sound like something quite simple, but it is extremely impacting to the customer experience, said Brown.
This advantage in perceived search quality and experience translates into consumers being more likely to make Google their primary search engine, return to the site for a future search and/or begin using the Google search tool bar.
In terms of service levels, Google had the industry’s best reliability, indicating its site was highly available and experienced little or no downtime. In general, the Chinese search engine industry is highly technically reliable with the sites being available 99.5% of the time, a figure on par with the U.S. market.
China Search Engine Industry Matches Global Technical Standard
Although the Google site is hosted in the U.S. and may be expected to have slower responsiveness, because of the simplicity of their design, they remain highly competitive despite a technical disadvantage. And although the sites developed in the Chinese market are heavily loaded visually, they are not technically heavy, excelling in the responsiveness category.
In both the U.S. and in China the search engine industries are setting the pace for Internet reliability and responsiveness, said Ben Rushlo, senior manager of professional services with Keynote. In fact, the Chinese search engine market really sets the global technical standard, edging out even the U.S. market in terms of site responsiveness.
Baidu set the industry standard in terms of site responsiveness; an indication of how fast a site was in returning results, among other areas.
Alibaba/Yahoo! ranked second overall in service level performance.
Most of the leading search sites excel in responsiveness with no notable slow downs during peak usage periods, said Rushlo. At these speeds consumers will not note a significant difference between any of the leading sites.
Despite Google’s favorable ratings, Baidu is in a strong position to hold on to its market share, provided it matches the U.S. search engine’s attractive features, Keynote said.