There has been a lot of press lately about Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU ) , a Chinese antivirus company that's recently entered Baidu's (Nasdaq: BIDU ) turf by introducing its own browser and search engine. Baidu has had a long healthy run of being the "big fish," but things may be changing for the company.
Chinese search companies met today with a government-sponsored trade group to discuss a code of conduct for the search market, the end result being an agreement to "maintain fair competition and a fair and orderly market environment."
With Qihoo dominating 8% of the search market in less than a year after launch, this small company is nothing to laugh at. Now that it knows the government will support a competitive search landscape, rather than tacitly backing Baidu's monopolistic success, that 8% could get a lot larger in a short scale of time. Fool.com analyst Lyons George has the full scoop on the big fish vs. the little fish in the video below.
Regardless of your short-term view on this story, there still may be opportunity in Baidu (aka the "Chinese Google"). Our brand new premium report breaks down the dominant Chinese search provider's strengths and weaknesses. Just click here to access it now.
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Report this Comment On November 01, 2012, at 11:17 PM, mmoser105 wrote:
That was interesting. Please remember BIDU will be the default search engine on Apple iPhones sold in China along with a large deal with China Mobile. Where is 8% Qihoo's mobile presence? Welcome to the "free market" mentality.
Report this Comment On November 02, 2012, at 9:26 AM, topsider12 wrote:
When Qihoo 360 replaced Google search with their own in August, they simply transferred those already using Google to their own search offered on their browser. If anything, it took share away from Google but little if any from those already using Baidu. In the most recent earnings conference call COO for Baidu, Jennifer Li, said that their was no noticeable erosion of Baidu's market share not referring to any competitor by name. Her statement is supported by the most recent survey by Analysys International. That survey said that Baidu's market share was 78.6%.
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