Baidu Removed Device Targeting for Paid Search

Baidu Enhanced Campaigns

Baidu upgraded their paid search system and removed device targeting last Saturday, which could be inspired by Google Adwords enhanced campaign; advertisers no longer need to create a separate campaign for each target device type.

Previously Baidu search advertisers have device options on campaign levels including desktop computers and mobile devices. After the upgrade, the ads will display on all devices. Advertisers can specify a percentage of bid for mobile devices, between 0.1 to 10. [Read more...]

China Mobile Web Browser Market Overview in 2012

Top China Mobile Browser by Total No. of Active Users in Q4 2012

According to a report of EnfoDesk, QQ browser, UC browser and Oupeng browser (excluding Opera) were the top three in the accumulative account market share of China’s third party browser, with 40.6%, 33.0% and 8.3% market share by total users by the end of the Q4.

And we can also see that UC browser, QQ browser and Oupeng browser (excluding Opera) are also the top three counting the total number of active account  with market share of  39.8%, 37.2% and 7.0% respectively in Q4. [Read more...]

Baidu Refer 27% Traffic to Its Own Web Properties

Traffic Share of Baidu Products to Its Own Web Properties

Traffic Share of Baidu Products to Its Own Web Properties

According to Experian Hitwise, Baidu refer 27% of the search traffic to its own web properties, among which the top three are Baidu Knows (or Baidu Zhidao, a Q&A style site), Baidu Encyclopedia (Wiki style site), and Baidu Post Bar (a UGC website similar to a forum).

Top 3 Online Advertising Platform in 2012: Baidu, Alibaba, Google

China Online Advertising in 2012

According to Enfodesk, Baidu accounted for 30.9% of the total online ad revenue in China; Alibaba for 15.3%, and Google China for 6.2%.

China Search Engine Market Share in 2012

China Search Engine Market Share in 2012

According to China search engine market quarterly data in 2012 released by EnfoDesk, the China search engine leader Baidu accounted for 78.6% of the total search engine market, Google for 15.6%, while Sogou 3.1%. [Read more...]

Dependence on Baidu by Industry

Dependence on Baidu

Industry Dependence on Baidu

Recently Hitwise collected data of anonima internet surfing, searching and interbehavior among netizens, cooperated with the telecoms operators and the ISP. They found that Wiki sites, the local catering industry, tourism and the Airlines have higher dependence on Baidu.

Baidu Zhidao Launched Q&A Platform for Enterprises

Baidu Zhidao Enterprise Platform of Lenovo

Baidu Zhidao is the world’s largest Chinese interactive Q&A community platform. Recently it launched Q&A community marketing platform for enterprises.

Baidu Zhidao Enterprise Platform serves as corporations’ official customer service. The platform is offered for the enterprise users to communicate with their customers and lightens the burden of the high labour service cost, which can also help companies manage customer relations.

The platform is regarded as the customer service innovations on the Internet which builds a bridge of communication for the enterprise and the consumer users, in order to achieve efficient interaction between the two.

Baidu Zhidao Enterprise Platform offers both powerful precise marketing and market data monitoring functions for the corporations. It is set up to help promote the enterprise brands and supervise the quality and the satisfaction of the customer service. This to a great extent helps corporations save the costs of both labour cost and advertising.

You can send an e-mail to qiyepingtai@baidu.com to apply for the corporation with Baidu if necessary. Directly dialing 010-59924485/8632 to contact Baidu is also welcome.

Top 10 Searches on Baidu in 2012

What are Chinese Netizens interested in 2012? Check out the top 10 searches on Baidu in 2012:

[Read more...]

Search Engine Market Update in Q3 2012

China search engine market reached 7.78 billion yuan (USD 1.25 billion) in Q3 2012, with the QoQ growth of 13.5% and YoY growth of 44.1%. China’s search engine market growth is slowing down as the growth rate is lower than 50% for the very first time due to a few factors:

  • Affected by the macroeconomic situation, advertisers reduced their advertising budget
  • Fast-growing mobile search engine took some market share
  • The launch of Qihoo 360 search engine took some search volume market share while having not yet started to contribute revenue to search market

[Read more...]

China Search Engine Market Update in October 2012

Compared with September, total visits to Baidu increased and its market share by visits went up to 61%, keeping its safe lead in this field. Moreover, Bing is experiencing an obvious growth ever since its strategy adjustment.

Qihoo’s 360 search engine is now the second most visited search engine in China after Baidu.

China Top 20 Internet Companies by User Scale for H1 2012

Top 20 China Internet Companies

Top 20 China Internet Companies

According to the data provided by iResearch this July, here comes the list of China’s top 20 internet companies by total reached users in the first half of 2012. The research was based on long-term monitoring for 400,000 network behavior samples.

Branding with Baidu CAPTCHA Ads

Baidu Captcha is another strong tool for brand marketing, suitable for online campaign like brand communication, new launches. It uses discernible materials to replace previous twisty letters or characters.

Only when users enter the specific information in the picture or ad words correctly, can they finish the authentication. The process of expression, recognizing, memorizing and repeatedly entering the specified terms strengthens the brand image in users’ mind. [Read more...]

Baidu Site App Platform: Turn Your Website into WebApp

If you are observing an increase in mobile traffic with high bounce rate, you probably should consider designing a mobile site (if your site is not based on responsive design). If you don’t have a budget for that, you can use this tool from Baidu called Baidu Site App.

According to Tencent NewsBaidu Site App Platform is the 1st online web app builder in China, officially launched on Sep 3. It can provide website developers with integrated services such as webapp delivery, net flow and user importing.

There had been 10,041 registered users, 8,919 submitted portals and 843 of them were rated as good three weeks since its launch.

The five main features of Baidu Site App are:

  • Provides multiple sets of templates
  • Auto-sync of content
  • Helps mobile search ranking
  • Supports Baidu Analytic
  • Free for ever

Users can register and log in on Baidu Site App Platform. Enter the URL of selected websites, choose Web App templates, and modify specific functions. After deploying domain name, users should submit for official approvement. Once passed, the web app will be online on the mobile internet.

For developers, the advantage of Site App is gradually appearing. As an online builder of mobile web app, Site App can easily turn PC portals into mobile web app. Meanwhile, with the help of Baidu Analytic, intelligent operation can be easily realized. Also, there will be more inputs of net flow and users from Baidu mobile search engine and other means. For example, websites, which are turned into Web App, will have better expression on mobile. This will help the website get higher ranking on results page.

As for users, the transformation of Site App will help them save time and resources. Users have to search, download and install Native app before really using it, which is quite inconvenient. Not to mention how much memory capacity it will occupy. But if native app transforms into web app via Site App Platform, users can get access to a variety of apps without downloading.

We will not deny it is native app that facilitates the explosion of mobile internet but it has its  inevitable limitation. In contrast, web app will not be limited by relative hardware and software vendors while maximize the net profit of developers. We can easily anticipate its leading role in the near future.

Baidu Jingsuan: Stronger Analysis Tool for Your DigiMarkeitng

Recently, Baidu Team published a brand new analytics product called Baidu Jingsuan. It is a data-drived platform offering precise assessment of online ads for advertisers. With more comprehensive data analysis, it claims it could increase the ROI if taking full advantage of it.

Let’s take a closer look of its fantastic advantages: [Read more...]

A New Player in China’s Search Market

360 Search

Qihoo 360, China’s biggest anti-virus vendor, launched a search engine “so.360.cn” on 16 August in public beta and soon became the second largest traffic source to many websites like chinaz.com and dxy.cn.

Since 20 August, Qihoo has replaced the default search engine with its own on its directory site hao.360.cn and its own browsers. Due to the popularity of Qihoo’s products like web browser, it’s definitely a threat to Baidu. Some influencers like Kingsoft CEO Fu Sheng claim that 360 Search now has about 10% of search market in China.

Baidu has started displaying a notice to users referred by 360 Search on its Q&A site Baidu Zhidao, alerting users to set Baidu as its homepage or add a shortcut on desktop.

Baidu PPC Launched Android App & Performance Analysis

Baidu PPC Android App

Baidu PPC Android App

Baidu launched an Android app for its paid search platform where advertisers can check account balance, campaign performance; top up account, receive alert and optimize campaigns.

The Android app is currently in limited beta; if you want to give it a try, contact your Baidu representative and tell her your mobile number (where the link to download the app will be sent) and account number. [Read more...]