Google Battles Baidu in China

Baidu, Google's counterpart in China, dominates Chinese search market, challenged strongly by Google's presentence. A report from AP shows now Google is developing quite healthy and may some day later overturn Baidu's leading position. Excerpts are:

"A survey of Chinese Web surfers found U.S.-based search giant Google in an unexpectedly strong position to challenge domestic rival Baidu.com, according to results released Wednesday.

Google came in first in 11 of 13 categories in the survey of 1,200 Internet users, said Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, California-based firm that studies consumer data for online firms.

That was despite Baidu's widespread popularity in its Chinese home market, where it is the preferred search engine for 48 percent of users, according to Chinese government data cited by Keynote.

"It was interesting that Google came out on top," said Jeff Kraatz, Keynote's Asia Pacific vice president.

Google is a latecomer to China, the world's second-largest Internet market after the United States, with more than 111 million people online as of the end of 2005."