Everybody turns to search engines
(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-12-01 14:25
As the Internet extends its tentacles into every aspect of daily life, more
and more Chinese are finding that they just can't live without search
engines.
Yang Yu, a 24-year-old office worker, is busy clicking key
words on search pages to find information and clues for her report.
"I
use map search to find places I don't know, use food search to book a suitable
restaurant and use music search to find melodies", Yang told Xinhua. "Search
engines have become indispensable partners and helpers in our
lives."
Yang is only one of 119 million people in China who use search
engines more than 7 times a day.
For every ten netizens in China -- where
the search engine market will generate sales of 1.9 billion yuan (237.5 million
US dollars) in 2006 and is growing by 40 percent a year -- there are eight power
searchers like Yang.
Baidu, Yahoo and Google, the market leaders, are
scrambling to increase their market share.
Baidu's intimate understanding
of Chinese people's search habits has seen it improve content by strengthening
cooperation with media groups and closely observing netizen search
behavior.
This has paid off. A report by I Search showed Baidu ranked
first in 2005 with a 46.5 percent market share, compared with 34.5 percent in
2004.
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