Baidu and Apple to share revenue from iPhone searches in China
The addition of Chinese search engine Baidu to iOS later this year will give Apple a cut of advertising revenue from the popular website.
Terms of the deal are similar to revenue sharing agreements with other smartphone makers who provide built-in Baidu search, Wang Jing, vice president of the Beijing-based company, said in an interview with Bloomberg. Baidu accounts for about 80 percent of Web searches in China.
Baidu integration is already available in about 80 percent of Android-based smartphones in China. The search engine has helped push its presence on mobile devices by sharing advertising revenue with hardware partners.
Apple announced this week that both iOS 6 and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will add Baidu as a built-in search option for Chinese users. Apple's focus on China also includes support for micro-blogging via Sina Weibo and video sharing for Youku and Tudou.
Baidu integration iOS will also extend to the voice-driven Siri personal assistant on the iPhone. When iOS 6 launches this fall, Siri will also understand Mandarin, tuned for both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, and Cantonese, for Hong Kong and the mainland.
Last quarter, Apple's revenue in China tripled, and the country became its largest market outside of the U.S. Under Chief Executive Tim Cook, China has become a major focus for Apple. In January, Cook said the nation's demand for the Apple products, particularly the iPhone, has been "staggering."
Terms of the deal are similar to revenue sharing agreements with other smartphone makers who provide built-in Baidu search, Wang Jing, vice president of the Beijing-based company, said in an interview with Bloomberg. Baidu accounts for about 80 percent of Web searches in China.
Baidu integration is already available in about 80 percent of Android-based smartphones in China. The search engine has helped push its presence on mobile devices by sharing advertising revenue with hardware partners.
Apple announced this week that both iOS 6 and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will add Baidu as a built-in search option for Chinese users. Apple's focus on China also includes support for micro-blogging via Sina Weibo and video sharing for Youku and Tudou.
Baidu integration iOS will also extend to the voice-driven Siri personal assistant on the iPhone. When iOS 6 launches this fall, Siri will also understand Mandarin, tuned for both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, and Cantonese, for Hong Kong and the mainland.
Last quarter, Apple's revenue in China tripled, and the country became its largest market outside of the U.S. Under Chief Executive Tim Cook, China has become a major focus for Apple. In January, Cook said the nation's demand for the Apple products, particularly the iPhone, has been "staggering."
Comments
Well, Google had it coming. Maps, Baidu... In time with the amount of data Apple handles they could easily start their own search engine (again) ... and call it, of course, Sherlock.
"Just Sherlock it, Sherlock..."
"OK" [RETURN]
I'm not sure I'd read too much into this relative to Google. Baidu is an extremely popular search engine in China and Apple wants to appeal more to that market. Adding support for Baidu is a good move. I'd read it as a blow to Google if Baidu was a underdog (on a noteworthy level) and Apple started migrating toward them anyway. The movement from Google Maps is probably a better representation of their relationship. If Google had decided to work with Apple instead of competing with them that might not have taken place.
well they have to - they being eaten alive by Android in china - Baidu is one of the popular things there they need to adopt, a bit late thou. No point in sticking with Google in China for search.
Quote:
Originally Posted by agramonte
...they being eaten alive by Android in china .....
Only because Apple is not on China Mobile yet. When/if that happens, Android's share in China is toast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Zhu Xuande
I'm not sure I'd read too much into this relative to Google. Baidu is an extremely popular search engine in China and Apple wants to appeal more to that market.
Exactly. Google only has 31% of the Chinese online search market now. Baidu leads with 60%, Yahoo is a distant third with about 9%.
Apple is just going with the leader.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Only because Apple is not on China Mobile yet. When/if that happens, Android's share in China is toast.
numbers are not a reflection of availability but integration - you see the same thing in Japan. The amount of customization for the asian markets being done with Android is amazing right now. Baidu is a step in the right direction for iOS.
There are a lot of other markets where Google is not #1 but Apple uses Google, if Apple switches in those marlets as well it will not be good for Google. The thing to wonder is will Apple switch in the English language markets, if they do then that's most of Googles mobile revenue gone. If Apple switches to Bing, MS will overnight become the market leader in mobile serch revenue and given MS track record of being willing to wasting billions in the quest for market share, Apple probably wont loose anything. Bing isn't as popular as Google but in tems of serch quality, there is not much between them so the user probably wont notice any real world difference.