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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. Chinese Search Engines by kevx45 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wonder why China doesn't have a state-run search engine? They have a state-modified version of Linux (referring to RedStar Linux, I think...)

    Seriously though, China has the largest population in the world with India at a close second right now. OF course their internet usage is BOOMING. Good luck to all those who design the search engines.

    --
    "Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"-Pink Floyd
    1. Re:Chinese Search Engines by kevx45 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That wasn't the point of the question. I would think, in China anyhow, that it wouldn't matter what the people wanted since government controls everything anyhow. And since China has the manpower resources, I would think they would just rip Google off and run their own search engine. Or something like that. Probably doesn't matter anyhow since in the next few years they'll probably do that anyhow.

      That's my two cents.

      Kev

      --
      "Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"-Pink Floyd
  2. Just a simple(?) question by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is much emphasis on the "growing" market for computers/internet stuff in China, and everyone who is anyone is trying to get into that market.

    But does it really exist? The government has shown a marked distaste for anything that may threaten their power/viewpoint, and with many poor people in china (farmers, et al) does this market really exist, or are large corps. trying to forcibly open them up like they did with Japan in the early times?

    --
    So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
    1. Re:Just a simple(?) question by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The times they are changing...

      But does it really exist? The government has shown a marked distaste for anything that may threaten their power/viewpoint, and with many poor people in china (farmers, et al) does this market really exist, or are large corps. trying to forcibly open them up like they did with Japan in the early times?

      Mao, back during the 1920's fond his support in the overlooked and abused peasants, abused first by the outgoing Manchu Dynasty then by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In the backwaters of the country the party has always drawn its strength and support. However, expect in a generation or so (and probably already well seeded) factions which draw support from other sources to make themselves known and carve out their own spheres of power and influence. Expect the peasants to lose considerable clout.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  3. Google Cache Pages for China? by abcxyz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I just looked, and the cached page link is there. Do you mean that they aren't caching links to CN sites?

  4. Re:Extra Radio Buttons? by squarefish · · Score: 2, Insightful

    my guess would be different dialects of their language.

    --
    Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
  5. Slashdot Double Standards by Pave+Low · · Score: 4, Insightful
    How come we don't see the 'Google Violates Human Rights in China' like we did with Microsoft?

    Just curious.

    --
    SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
  6. Re:Technical Challenges - languages vs dialects by cyfer2000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The other thing about Chinese is the dialects in most case are only different in pronouciation. So as search engines only read things and listen nothing, most dialects are the same.

    --
    There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
  7. Re:Confucius Say:"Many search engine but few conte by ZenFu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The population of China could be 1.2B, but when you compare the amount of literature written in Chinese langauge(s) to that written in English, Chinese comes in a very poor second place.

    Who are we to say what they can do with the new tools that they will be provided? The combination of Yahoo going to China and the following article regarding the "deep web" makes me think that there will be new ways of conceptualizing and approaching the online universe.

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/09/132025 1&mode=thread

    Old-style content, assuming the word is still relevant, may not be the only content people are interested in and especially may not be relevant to other countries and cultures with different social, political and economic attributes. Who is to say that new internet surfers will go about the internet the same way the old internet surfers have done?

    I think it'll be interesting to see what types of new and revolutionary products do come out of initiatives such as these.