The State of Internet Companies in China
Knowledge of the impact of Baidu in China has reached the Western world. I think Baidu's presence had been felt when Google entered the China search market 5 years ago, but Baidu's market share grew during that time to 63% to Google's lowly 33%.
The same goes for Facebook, Myspace and Twitter who never took off in China, partly due to Chinese Censorship (aka The Great Firewall of China) but also partly due to the majority Chinese Internet companies like Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu creating popular copycat versions of their own.
eBay Problems in China
One example is eBay entrance in the local market. They purchased the Chinese auction house EachNet and dominated the e-commerce market. The problem was Alibaba came along with their Taobao.com auction site and took over. The reason being EachNet charged for placement listings whilst Taobao did not. The market share moved swiftly across and eBay ended up leaving China in 2006, surrendering to Taobao.
It seems Chinese companies were swift in their actions to create online companies, get them out there and build up a fan base. Chinese entrepreneurs have done a great job in duplicating what is already available and tailoring it the local communities wants and needs.
Why is Baidu so Popular
It could be because they've been around the longest since 2000, have become an established search portal during that time and also perhaps that Chinese users don't know of anything else which can compete. Baidu is the ultimate portal since it offers news, search (free, paid, book, video, blog searches), links to downloading mp3 music or movies and online communities.
Market Share of Search Properties
Comscore released the following information in late 2009, which is pretty interesting as it shows the % ownership of the most popular search engines in each Asian country:
According to ICM in 2009, 77% of the Korean population use the internet which is a staggering figure. Search portals like Altavista (remember them?), Nate and Simmani are popular in Korea whilst Cyworld is a popular social network service which uses it's own virtual currency called Dotori. Sites like Aladdin and Danawa are Korea's answer to Amazon.
Indonesia
I haven't written much about Indonesia on Best Blogs Asia but I found out its advert market is the biggest in South East Asia with a $4 billion spend in 2008-2009 alone! The problem is this spend isn't in the online market, due to lack of growth in the country's infrustructure and cost. Friendster is the most popular social networking site and targetted advertising could be focused on the gadgets/electronics industry are it's believed Indonesian's like to change their mobiles every 6 months!
Japan
According to Comscore 2009, Japan is the 3rd largest country in the world with highest number of Internet users. Ecommerce sites like Rakuten are popular and the top search engines are Yahoo and Google Japan.
Other Countries
I don't have enough space to list all the other countries in Asia, but India is the next big country taking off. The problem with India is similar to China with Government control, although things are a little worse due to Paypal being blocked in the country due to credit/banking/currency problems.
Affiliate Programs in Asia
The affiliate market scene in Asia isn't great, but it is developing in places like Singapore and Malaysia with famous full time bloggers like Sabahan, Xia Xue and Liew CF who all make a living off their earnings. Programs like Google Adsense seem to be most popular, but there is money to be made from Asia based Networks like Zanox (Apple), Nuffnang (Pringles), ChineseAN (Newsweek) and JoYo (Chinese Amazon).
Knowledge of the impact of Baidu in China has reached the Western world. I think Baidu's presence had been felt when Google entered the China search market 5 years ago, but Baidu's market share grew during that time to 63% to Google's lowly 33%.
The same goes for Facebook, Myspace and Twitter who never took off in China, partly due to Chinese Censorship (aka The Great Firewall of China) but also partly due to the majority Chinese Internet companies like Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu creating popular copycat versions of their own.
eBay Problems in China
One example is eBay entrance in the local market. They purchased the Chinese auction house EachNet and dominated the e-commerce market. The problem was Alibaba came along with their Taobao.com auction site and took over. The reason being EachNet charged for placement listings whilst Taobao did not. The market share moved swiftly across and eBay ended up leaving China in 2006, surrendering to Taobao.
It seems Chinese companies were swift in their actions to create online companies, get them out there and build up a fan base. Chinese entrepreneurs have done a great job in duplicating what is already available and tailoring it the local communities wants and needs.
Why is Baidu so Popular
It could be because they've been around the longest since 2000, have become an established search portal during that time and also perhaps that Chinese users don't know of anything else which can compete. Baidu is the ultimate portal since it offers news, search (free, paid, book, video, blog searches), links to downloading mp3 music or movies and online communities.
Market Share of Search Properties
Comscore released the following information in late 2009, which is pretty interesting as it shows the % ownership of the most popular search engines in each Asian country:
- China: Baidu.com Inc. (63.00%)
- Hong Kong: Yahoo! Sites (58.90%)
- India: Google Sites (89.10%)
- Japan: Google Sites (47.50%)
- Malaysia: Google Sites (71.10%)
- New Zealand: Google Sites (80.50%)
- Singapore: Google Sites (72.30%)
- South Korea: NHN Corporation (49.30%)
- Taiwan: Yahoo! Sites (65.40%)
According to ICM in 2009, 77% of the Korean population use the internet which is a staggering figure. Search portals like Altavista (remember them?), Nate and Simmani are popular in Korea whilst Cyworld is a popular social network service which uses it's own virtual currency called Dotori. Sites like Aladdin and Danawa are Korea's answer to Amazon.
Indonesia
I haven't written much about Indonesia on Best Blogs Asia but I found out its advert market is the biggest in South East Asia with a $4 billion spend in 2008-2009 alone! The problem is this spend isn't in the online market, due to lack of growth in the country's infrustructure and cost. Friendster is the most popular social networking site and targetted advertising could be focused on the gadgets/electronics industry are it's believed Indonesian's like to change their mobiles every 6 months!
Japan
According to Comscore 2009, Japan is the 3rd largest country in the world with highest number of Internet users. Ecommerce sites like Rakuten are popular and the top search engines are Yahoo and Google Japan.
Other Countries
I don't have enough space to list all the other countries in Asia, but India is the next big country taking off. The problem with India is similar to China with Government control, although things are a little worse due to Paypal being blocked in the country due to credit/banking/currency problems.
Affiliate Programs in Asia
The affiliate market scene in Asia isn't great, but it is developing in places like Singapore and Malaysia with famous full time bloggers like Sabahan, Xia Xue and Liew CF who all make a living off their earnings. Programs like Google Adsense seem to be most popular, but there is money to be made from Asia based Networks like Zanox (Apple), Nuffnang (Pringles), ChineseAN (Newsweek) and JoYo (Chinese Amazon).
