Sogou started to provide the WeChat search service. It supports the account name search and the keyword search.

The third largest search engine provider in China 'Sogou' started to provide WeChat search service.

This search service supports the account name search and the keyword search.

  

About the account name search, it can search by the account name (displayed name on WeChat) and the account code. And if you click the displayed account name, then it will be displayed the posting history.

Last time, I explained that WeChat has not prepared the method of spreading information in the platform to the official accounts. But this search service will be useful for the official account on WeChat, because it will be able to be found by users more easily than now. It will be useful for users too, because it can help users to find the information easily what users want.

Sogou have provided the search engine since 2004 as a subsidiary of Sohu. But Tencent invested 448 million USD last September, and Tencent now has 36.5% stock of Sogou. They started to grope for the collaboration from that time, and this search service is surely the one of their result.

As I mentioned above, Sogou is the third largest search engine provider in China. And according to the recent report by CNZZ, their market share is 12.44% as of May 2014.

The difference with the two largest companies(Baidu and 360) is still big, but I think that this service can help to reduce that difference. Because WeChat will not provide such search result to that two largest companies.

Let's keep watching the future situation of this.

Source => WeChat search service by Sogou

Baidu still have the two big problem to be solved for search area.

As you know, Baidu is the biggest search solution provider in China. And actually, they have dominated the search market in China for a long time.

But recently, they are just facing the two big problems to be solved as follows.


1. Moblie Search Market

Chinese mobile search market share in the first quarter

Baidu  37.5%
SOSO   16.7%
easou   15.7%
Yicha   11.2%
Sogou    7.4%
Google China   6.3%
Youdao  2.3%
Roboo     1.8%
iask        1.3%



The above picture is the market share of the Chinese mobile search engine in the first quarter. According to this report, Baidu has 37.5% market share in Chinese mobile search engine market, and they occupy the leading position on there.
But as I explained before, they still don't have the overwhelming strength in the mobile area compared to the PC area.

Baidu has provided the special Smartphone that is adopted their own OS with partner since last year, and they established the LBS specific team in their company to accelerate their mobile solution. But compared the market share of last year, but it seems that their effort is not still rewarded.


2. Rise of the Qihoo 360
The following picture is the market share of the Chinese PC search market in the first quarter.

Baidu                68.32%
Qihoo 360       14.40%
Sogou                  8.35%
SOSO                   4.05%
Google China     3.75%
Bing China          0.64%
Yahoo China       0.32%
Youdao                0.28%
Other                   0.07%





As mentioned before, Baidu have the the overwhelming strength in the PC search market. But compared to the first quarter of 2012, their market share decreased 10.18%. The main reason is the existence of Qihoo 360.

Qihoo 360 started to provide their own search service from last August. They are gradually expanding their market share, and they got the 2nd position in this market in the first quarter.

But Qihoo 360 also have the problem to be solved for mobile search solution. They started to provide their own mobile search service from last November, but they couldn't still get the enough market share at the first quarter.


This report also said that Chinese mobile internet users already exceeded 300 million people in the first quarter.

I think that the fierce battle in the Chinese mobile search market still continues for the time being, and it seems that all of the fighters have a chance to win. We have to keep watching who will come through this fierce battle.


Source => Sootoo-1, Sootoo-2

Chinese search engine market is estimated to grow over 15 billion USD market size in 2015. Will Baidu be able to continue dominating this market?

Recently, Eguan published the report that is written about the result and forecast of Chinese search engine market from 2010 to 2015.

They estimated that its market scale will reach 15.1 billion USD(= 950.0 RMB) in 2015, its CAGR in the next 5 years will be about 50%.


Now Chinese search engine market is dominated by Baidu. 

According to the recent data of CNZZ, Baidu have 65.33% market share of it. As I reported before, they have 250,000 advertising customer, and they expected that it become more than 300,000 customer in the end of 2012. Their ads revenue was also estimated to reach 20 billion RMB(= 3.18 billion USD), it will be expected that their revenue will be also continued increasing in 2013.

As I wrote the above, Baidu have the big strength in the Chinese search engine market, but they also have some weak point and anxiety.

1. Mobile search engine market
As I reported before, Baidu have the big strength in its market. But it is the case of PC search engine, and they don't have the strength in the mobile engine market compared to it.
Of course, they already recognized this situation, and they already provided some solutions(such as mobile OS, mobile cloud, LBS division and so forth) for solving this challenge .

According to the report by CNNIC, mobile devices already became the top of all method connecting to the internet. And its trend will also continue this year,  so it can be said that the acceleration of mobile solution is the most important challenge for them in 2013.

Furthermore according to the rumor, Baidu may invest to Sina Weibo for enforcing their mobile solutions. Before, some resources said that Alibaba have a plan to invest to Sina Weibo, but it seems that it went back to square one.

2. Rivals
The biggest security company "Qihoo 360" joined the war of this market last year. They start to provide their search engine for PC "so.com" from 2012 October , and also started to provide their search engine for mobile devices "m.so.com" from 2012 November. And they are rapidly increasing their market share in only few months. According to the above report, they already got the second position in its market.

According to the news, they have a plan to cooperate with Google China in near future, so Baidu also must be watching carefully for their trend.


Source => People's Daily Online, Sootoo, Tencent Tech, CECRC

Baidu still dominate more than three quarters of Chinese PC search market, but...

According to the report by Eguan, the total sales revenue of Chinese PC search market was 5.53 billion RMB(=0.877 million dollars) as of Q1,2012.

Its revenue has increased 70.4% year on year, but has decreased 4.7% compared to previous period.


And about the share of sales revenue by each companies are as follows:

#1 Baidu  78.5%
#2 Google China  16.6%
#3 Sogou  2.8%
#4 Soso(Tencent)  1.4%
#5 Wangyi Youdao  0.3%
Other  0.3%


Baidu still dominate more than three quarters of Chinese PC search market, but it focus to only mobile search market, other result is appeared.

#1 Baidu  34.9%
#2 Easou  21.0%
#3 Soso  19.7%
#4 Google China  11.1%
#5 3GYY  6.0%
#6 Yicha  4.9%
#7 Wangyi Youdao  0.8%
Other  1.6%


As far as looking this result, as I thought challenging of Baidu is still accelerating their mobile solution...


Original article => Eguan