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Will China Be Google’s New Fortune Cookie?
WebProNews
Staff Writer
2004-02-11
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Does the Far East hold good fortune for Google? The king of all search engines is about to find out.
Google, the leader of web searching, announced plans to take its AdWords service to China, where the Internet economy is flourishing after a long period of deflation. Sources say the paid advertising program now accepts payments in some Asian currencies, in addition to letting users advertise in two different Chinese dialects.
"What we want to do is make it easier for people who are native Chinese speakers," Adam Freed, director of international sales and operations at Google, told Reuters. "For the first time ever, sign-up and support processes are in Chinese." Reuters also reports that hundreds of AdWords customers currently run Chinese-language campaigns on Google, but many signed up using the program's English-language interface.
The Internet has created a revolution in the Chinese lifestyle. Despite government attempts to block some foreign sites, cyber cafes are booming, and a recent poll suggests Chinese Internet users trust online news more than newspaper publications. China Daily has reported that the Chinese market is estimated to reach up to $2.4 billion by 2005 and search advertising seems to have particular potential. CNET Asia that sohu.com, China's top web portal, had $9.5 million advertising revenue in the fourth quarter.
"With the rapid growth of the Chinese Internet market, we see that all indicators point to a strong surge in Chinese e-commerce," Yan Wang, chief executive of Chinese web portal Sina, has stated.
Google is not the only company moving to expand its business in China. Yahoo has also begun expanding its services to the Chinese market, and just last month, the search engine announced its plans to team up with Sina to offer an online auction service. However, Google does have an advantage over its top search advertising competitor in the United States, Overture, which currently has no Chinese ad support.
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