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The China Internet Network Information Center has released the
results of its study on search demographics. Google and Chinese search company Baidu are the stars of the report, with
other native companies and Yahoo! picking up leftover pieces of the market. The results
(PDF file here) convey a sense of youth vs maturity,
and cool vs. professional in the rivalry between Baidu and Google. (Google is an investor in Baidu.) Google suffers
badly in the competition for new users, of which Baidu owns 48 percent compared to Google’s 12.5 percent. (Another
Chinese engine, Sohu, picks up 19.6 percent.)
Baidu’s success seems largely based on its notorious MP3 searches, which is probably bad news for the recently
Nasdaq-listed company, as it has promised to remove
MP3 results from its index. (My continual testing of
MP3 searches still turns up MP3 files with ease.) Because of the search angle, Baidu is far more used by undergraduates
in China than Google is, though that demographic profile reverses startlingly as the student move into higher levels.
In fact, this trend is so pronounced that the report is forced to identify “high end” users both in school and in
professional life; this niche is defined by educational level and income level. A three-to-one advantage for Baidu at
the low end is reversed in Google’s favor at the high end. Professionals, doctoral students, and high-income earners
all skew strongly toward Google. [via
CNET]
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