Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Search Engines Set To Vie For China

Posted by michael on from the great-firewall dept.

ackthpt writes "Could China be where the battle for top search engine is waged? Reuters is carrying an article on the play for the Chinese search engine market. Already the second largest internet market in the world, there are estimated 80 million users in China and the number growing fast. Yahoo's acquisition 3721.com, Google-styled Baidu.com and Zhongsou.com are already poised and profitable. Where is Google? Blocked at one time, Google has made its way into China. Their handy cached pages are not available, but they do offer the Ad Words service in chinese to lure business. Those unfamiliar with China's rapid adoption of the internet might like to read up on the success of DangDang.Com an online bookseller, on the BBC, where it's noted that houses without heat or running water may actually have internet access. Thanks to China coming in where many growing pains, suffered by the west, have already passed or obstacles such as competing vested interests aren't as influential, so internet infrastructure is going in at a rapid pace."

9 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Talk about Chutzpah... by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny
    "My job in China is to kick Google's ass," said Zhou Hongyi, the bespectacled founder and chief executive of 3721 Network Software,"

    He's gonna need an awfully big boot...

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:Talk about Chutzpah... by dingo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Are you saying google has a big arse?
      OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
      You're in trouble now.
      No man has ever survived that minefield.
      You wil just have to search the web somewhere else if you are going to make comments like that.

      --
      The Borg assimilated my race & all I got was this lousy T-shirt
  2. That sounds like an endorsement of Communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Thanks to China [where] obstacles such as competing vested interests aren't as influential, so internet infrastructure is going in at a rapid pace."

    Or at the very least, of dictators. Yay for the efficiency that comes with lack of choice!

  3. I know this Zhou guy by CreamOfWheat · · Score: 0, Funny

    He is an outright scam artist. Please do not invest $ with this guy, you will be sorry. Zhou also has a nasty habit of picking his nose and eating it--strange guy he is

  4. 3721? by c_oflynn · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is 3721 for? That like 1337 in chinese or something?

  5. Priorities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    houses without heat or running water may actually have internet access.

    Glad to see they have their priorities straight.

  6. Wrong. by DAldredge · · Score: 3, Funny

    His job in china is to not get placed in Jail AND beat Google... If his search engine works too well and indexs the 'wrong' stuff he could face prison time.

  7. i can't read by happyfrogcow · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Yes Captain, our engines have been set to 'Fuscia'"

    "No Leutenant! Not out engines, our Search engines!"

    "Yes sir, setting search engines to 'Fuscia'"

    "Fuscia!? No, set them to 'Vie'"

    "Violet, Sir?"

    "Leutenant, set our search engines to 'vie', thats an order!"

    "What color is 'Vie', Sir?"

    ...At this point in the little theatre in my mind, I realized what the headline was trying to say.

  8. I think I know what the problem is... by MagnaMark · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think I know what the problem with Google's Chinese site is:

    It's mostly just a bunch of question marks:

    ???? - Google ?? - Google.com in English

    (C)2004 Google - ?? 4,285,199,774 ????

    Gosh, Google has a good reputation, but with shoddy pages like this, they're not going to make much of a dent in the Chinese search market.