Google launches SMS search in China
Google recently launched its SMS search service in China. By sending an SMS to 999333 1069999333 you can now access a huge amount of information; venues addresses, weather forecasts, translation tools...
Those of you who have been living in China for a while must know Guanxi, which provides such kind of services. You must also remember the numerous SPAM messages you received after using it, the repetitive changes of number and the inconsistent listings. And don't even mention the price: over 1 yuan for each SMS sent, when it mustn't cost them more than a couple maos a piece! Well, Google proposes its services for the price of a regular SMS, and I am pretty sure they will bring a valuable experience in that field (especially regarding usability). Just have a look at the official Google page and give it a try, their number has already replaced Guanxi's on my mobile phone.
This being said, Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO of mInfo, the company that acquired Guanxi last summer, does not seem to be sharing my enthusiasm. In a comment left on Digital Watch he said that he thought Google had "a lot of catching up to do" to be competitive with their offer. I do agree with him that "taking the keyword based US engine and porting it to Chinese just isn’t going to be enough in this market". There are plenty of examples of successful worldwide companies struggling to penetrate the Chinese market; remember eBay vs. Taobao, or even Google vs. Baidu. China does require a specific strategy, and even a mammoth such as Google could be defeated by a local company. Though, considering the simplicity of SMS technologies, Google's previous experience in China and their almost unlimited financial and technical resources, I doubt they should be considered as just another competitor.
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Submitted by kästner (not verified) on Sat, 2007-12-01 18:46.I tried Google SMS search service last month, really a cool widget!
About the China market, I think eBay's failure was not a blunder made by itself — at least eBay China's predecessor "Eachnet.com" (易趣) had already sowed the seeds of inferiority. They shouldn't have asked too much before C2C in China getting matured. (The founder of eachnet.com once scoffed at Taobao as a flea market/bazaar, lacking of directing and administration things, but sorry, it was Taobao who won out eventually! Let's just celebrate the difference, you know it IS the very reality of today's China/Chinese people — we prefer free stuffs. Not to mention people spittle to the proposal for network taxes should be levied)
btw, I don't think Google fails in China market, I use Baidu for mp3 searching ( it says Baidu occupies more than 93% in song searching field, I think it's ture ), but will stick to Google thou.
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Submitted by hunvreus on Sat, 2007-12-01 20:14. Well, I don't think that Google is a "failure" in China, just that compared to the rest of the worldwide market, China may be the most difficult country they had to deal with. I don't know for 2007, but if I well remember in 2006 Google had something like 20% of the search engine market shares while Baidu was flying at more than 60%. This is a significant difference, and Google is still struggling to get even with Baidu. They do invest a lot in R&D (just take a look at their home page prototype for China for example) but it will take some time before they're able to match their Chinese arch rival. China is still working with an autarchic system of values and principles (at many levels) that gives local businesses a valuable advantage.- reply
Submitted by kästner (not verified) on Sat, 2007-12-01 21:07.I second you on 2005-2006 duel Google vs. Baidu. :)
AFAIK, Baidu will soon launch its C2C business and since Baidu.jp has been online the team will definitely put more efforts into Japan's search engine market. The reason Baidu won in the first half, in my eyes, is they know clearly what domestic market needs. For example, Baidu's Zhidao (知道) is much hotter than Yahoo!'s Answers, Baidu's Baiduba (百度吧) has a ever popular gathering (thou it's kinda retarded compared with a forum, in function). The influence will last I have no doubt. But as I told at the beginning, once Baidu relies on his savings, it's just tough for him to go further, the new markets (C2C, Japan) Baidu tries to exploit is going into bone hard to chew treats. Does Baidu have much more experience than Google to cope with that? :( If Baidu fails in C2C & Japan's market, do you think he might give a blow to the achievement he has gained so far? haha, hard to tell.
A better contrast is Yahoo! (China) vs. Google (China) or Baidu.
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Submitted by yaris (not verified) on Thu, 2009-03-26 16:06.yarış oyunları Yarış Oyunları