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October 17, 2005
Google in China
A great article by Perry Wu which talks about search, google, and baidu, and not forgetting microsoft.
The author talks a lot of sense and the article is well researched and thought out, however I am NOT sure how much of the paid search arena Perry understands, especially when it comes to where the big money in search will be in my opinion, this paragraph below is true but I would say this is NOT where the battle will be fought out, that will be the big global brands and agencies signing the $$$ cheques.
Google wants to grab the advertising dollars, and now in China the only direct way to enable a cash business like this is for Google is to build a business on Chinese turf. This being said, in China Google outsources much of their advertising-related services to intermediaries like Shanghai's Hotsales Company. So whether it actually needs to step foot in the Middle Kingdom is questionable. It needs to only have Hotsales send its converted currency checks to offshore accounts. This takes a little accounting voodoo, but it is possible.
Posted by shak at October 17, 2005 11:36 PM
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Actually I think that Google is breaking the big media buyer's grip on advertising and that model is perfect for China with its history of smal business. The chinese business person completely understands the model of test and expand which is where google's growth is driven. Buy a few dollars of adwords and if they work, buy more.
The real challenge is the Chinese government's limiting of access to only 'approved' search results.
Posted by: Martin at October 18, 2005 12:45 AM
Not to toot my own horn, but I was recently at the Baidu-plex. They don't call it this. Actually they have multiple locations in Beijing. Anyway I was there, I talked to some guys. I have maybe a token insight or two. I am able to share that information with the blogosphere, but my Mac is dying...
When my Mac is better I will post it on my blog. Just a heads up I guess. I have no AdWords so this can't be spam, or can it?
Posted by: muskie at October 22, 2005 12:12 PM