When Google’s U.S. market share changes by a percentage point or two, it doesn’t turn many heads - Google has been ahead, is ahead, and will presumably stay ahead, regardless.  But as Google’s Chinese share changes, a lot of eyes are watching to see what will happen.

Google Sees Positive Changes In China

Month-to-month fluctuations aside, Google appears to be catching up to Baidu.  To listen to Rebecca Kuei, Google’s head of sales and business development in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Google is catching up to the Chinese search engine.  “We are closing up the gap with them,” she told Reuters.

We’re left with a minor sort of comScore vs. Nielsen//NetRatings conundrum, however, as different agencies report different statistics (and time periods).

Just two weeks ago, China IntelliConsulting Corp. indicated that Google had managed a 1.4 percent rise in market share over the past six months.  Baidu, by contrast, supposedly gained 0.5 percent, which sounds good (for Google), but isn’t conclusive.

Now, Analysys International states that Baidu is up one percent from the previous quarter, while Google’s market share has increased by about four percent.  It’s not time for Kai-Fu Lee to buy confetti - even these more optimistic figures put Baidu at 58.1 percent and Google at 22.8 percent - but at least both reports indicate an upward trend.

Baidu’s often done better with young people, while Google China has scored well with older, more affluent figures.  Perhaps, as the current crop of young folks ages, changes will continue to favor Google.

That’s assuming that Google China catches up, though, which, as stated earlier, is a far from certain thing.  We’ll continue to monitor the situation and report back to you.

Tags: Google, China, Baidu