Bing To Target 5% Of Chinese Search Market

Sites include Bing.com , Microsoft.com . Published on September 30th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Microsoft has been feeling a bit peppy with its search division and according some US data curators, the search engine is actually gaining market share stateside. Now Microsoft is setting its sights on China.

According to a recent report, there is an estimated 5% of the Chinese search market that goes specifically after English queries and the company is looking to bring these searches into Bing’s search algorithm. But there’s a caveat and it comes in the form of that not-so-small search engine called Google.

According to the report that highlights the potential 5% market, Bing would still need to go head to head with Google to compete for these searches: “But therein lies the rub: what percent of those 5 percent of English searches come over VPNs, where Bing will have to compete with Google on even footing? Certainly, nearly every expatriate in China has a VPN. And many high-end Chinese users –the sorts of people who would be searching in English — have VPNs too.”

It’s unlikely that Microsoft will back down from the challenge; Google dominates the US market but that doesn’t stop Microsoft from clawing back market share. What’s more Bing now augments its search results with Yahoo’s and this will give it more reach—even in a VPN rich Chinese search market.

Do you think Bing may have a better time competing against Google in a Chinese market? Share your thoughts below.