Word: searchings
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...reason for that is obvious. Jan. 12 was, in effect, the starting point for the next phase of competition in China's search market - the battle for Google's share, which is about one-third in terms of search revenue. The most obvious potential foreign beneficiary is Bing, Microsoft's new search entry. And while Bing may not exactly have been handed the keys to a very rich kingdom, the executives there understand their good fortune - and have not been shy about subtly sticking the knife into Google. On March 17, Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer, told...
...inflicted wound/inspirational stand. Numerous sources says both Sohu.com - a Yahoo!-like website founded by MIT graduate Charles Zhang - and a hugely successful instant-messaging company called Tencent Holdings are already aggressively trying to hire Google China staff. (Google China declined to comment.) Neither has much of a presence in search, with less than 1% of the market each. But the two companies were investing significantly in search even before Google's ultimatum in January, and are now obviously even more determined to take on Baidu...
...Analysys International, nearly 70% of China's 400 million Internet users use instant-messaging, and of those, 80% use Tencent's system, known as QQ. That's the major reason that Tencent's market capitalization is bigger than Baidu's, and an insider at the company acknowledges that search "is very much" a target of opportunity...
...potential usurpers do what the Chinese government requires: censor their search results (as Google still does, despite reports in the blogosphere to the contrary). Random searches on all three platforms on March 17 for "Tiananmen Square, 1989," and "Falun Gong" - two hot buttons as far as Beijing is concerned - prompted the usual government-approved pabulum on the subjects. If Microsoft and the others intend to be in China "to stay," as Mundie put it, there is no chance - none - that the censorship issue will change for them going forward...
Since Jan. 12, Google's primary mission when it comes to its China operations has been damage control. What, if any, of its businesses beside search will survive? So far, it appears that Chinese adopters of Google's new Android operating system - including China Mobile and China Unicom, the two dominant mobile-phone companies - still have the government's permission to utilize the platform. But the future of other businesses that Google is involved with in China - for example, TOP 100.cn. a music portal funded by Google and several big music labels - is unclear...