Much like the alternatives to mainstream social media platforms, China has pioneered the production of search engines that provide an alternative to Google and Bing. Some of the most prominent Chinese search engines are Baidu and Bing.
Baidu – China’s internet giant
Since its founding in 2000, Baidu’s revenue surged swiftly and totaled about 124 billion yuan in 2021. A majority of the revenue was generated through online marketing services. However, the operating profit reduced drastically after having peaked over 15 billion yuan three years prior to 2020. Baidu used to control about 70 to 80 percent of China’s online search market, a new contender Sogou emerged and is expected to close the gap in the near future. The underdog in the search engine market is a subsidiary of Chinese internet company Sohu, Inc.
Baidu versus Sogou
Sogou was ranked the third most preferred mobile search engine with about 32 percent of market shares. However, it surpassed Baidu by a wide margin in terms of the daily browsing time spent by each visitor that equaled more than 35 minutes. Furthermore, Sogou pioneered the development of apps to input Chinese characters through a multiplatform replacement keyboard and voice typing. Their latest app – Mobile Keyboard – has given stiff competition to Baidu, compelling the tech giant to aggressively expand in the artificial intelligence sector.
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