This is because China Region is large and with complicated cultural differences. It is difficult for you to target the whole China Region unless you have millions of budget. If you are small to medium sized companies, decide your target region and focus on it first. For example, if you choose Hong Kong as your target market, I can tell you Yahoo Hong Kong is the most frequently used search engine and no almost one uses Baidu in Hong Kong!

Another point worthwhile to mention is that Google is rated the best search engine in China and the rating means a highly probable translation to its future growth in market share, according to a study made by Keynote Systems.

Paid Search Engine Marketing

Popularity in paid search engine marketing (pay-per-click) in China is increasing. Baidu, Yahoo and Google have their own programs. In order to succeed in a complicated region, search engines mainly rely on agents to sell their pay-per-click marketing. Pay-per-click is a new concept in China, and people there think it is too far too complicated. Therefore, agents usually sell paid search engine marketing by monthly flat rate according to the different schemes. It is somewhat different with the western world.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is quite a new concept in China but acceptance of this concept is increasing. Currently, there are many black-hat spammers and white-hat optimizers in the country. In China, people usually optimize for Google and Yahoo only, and use paid search engine marketing for Baidu.