bing

Yahoo! Japan announced its intention to team up with Google for search and ads.

Google to power Yahoo! Japan for search and ads

This news can seem surprising since Microsoft and Yahoo! created a Search Alliance. Yahoo! won’t therefore use Microsoft’s search engine Bing which however recently released a Japanese beta version.

Yahoo! Japan is Japan’s biggest site

Yahoo! Japan is Japan’s leading search engine and the country’s biggest website.

Microsoft and Yahoo! have given an update about the Bing-Yahoo! search platform merger by uploading a new video on their search alliance site.

Microsoft-Yahoo! search alliance

Both companies announced last year an agreement stating that search ad inventory from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and their respective partners would be combined into a unified search marketplace, giving advertisers access to an audience of more than 560 million searchers worldwide.

The aim of this agreement is to create a competitive choice in search for advertisers and consumers. However, the Yahoo! and Microsoft search alliance doesn't include each company's display advertising, web properties and products like email, instant messaging, etc.

The Bing-Yahoo! merger is expected to complete in the end of this year for advertisers in the US and Canada, and Yahoo! promised to complete all global advertisers’ transitions by 2012.

Bing to power search

Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing - by the way see our post about how to optimize your site for Bing) and paid search results (powered by adCenter) while Yahoo! Search Marketing will be shut down. Yahoo! and Microsoft will continue to have differentiated consumer search experiences.

Moreover, both companies will each provide customer support to different advertiser segments: Yahoo!’s sales team will exclusively support large advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers and their clients. Microsoft will support self-service advertisers.

Microsoft adCenter will be the platform for all search campaigns.

In March 2010, Google decided to stop censoring its search results in China, the Chinese version of Google now redirecting all queries to its Hong Kong version.

What are the consequences of Google’s move in the Chinese Internet search area ? 

Baidu gains market share, Google loses positions

Google’s decision to pull out of China results in giving a boost to Baidu. Baidu was already leading the Chinese Internet search market even before Google’s announcement ; this decision has given a more dominant position to Google’s rival.

In the end of 2009, Baidu’s market share was 58% while Google held 36% of the market. The figures provided by Analysys International, a Beijing-based market researcher, show interesting results. For the first quarter of 2010, there has been a significant increase in Baidu’s market share (now at 64%) while Google’s went down at a level of 31%.

Source : Analysys International

Other search engines in China do not take advantage of Google's announcement

One could have guessed that Google’s decision would have a negative impact on its market share. One would have been right. Nevertheless, more surprisingly, not all other actors took advantage of Google’s withdrawal : only Baidu has actually gained market shares in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009. Other competitors, including domestic companies such as Sogou and Soso, have dramatically lost positions.

Baidu announces excellent financial results

From a financial point of view, Baidu also took advantage of the situation.  The Chinese firm reported that its revenue rose 59.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 1.29 billion Chinese yuan and that its forecast for the second quarter would break a new record.

Where are Yahoo and Bing ?

I am wondering what Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) are doing. They have stayed rather discreet till now, but it is certain that a rival’s withdrawal is a good opportunity for both of them. I am sure they will strive to take advantage of the situation : China remains the biggest market with a population of 384 million users connected to the Internet, as of December 2009. Thus, even 1% market share represents almost 4 million of potential customers…

For anyone living in China is not a secret that cell phones market is huge. Around every corner it is possible to see people with brand new cell phones, Smartphone advertisements and new models every week. Well, Microsoft noticed this.

Bing in Smartphones

Microsoft made a deal with the cell phone manufacturer Motorola to have Bing as their default Search Engine in their Smartphones. Motorola will "deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android." They will also have a widget to boost search, which means that most searches done from Motorola phones will be powered by Bing's algorithm.

Motorola says that "Search and Maps capabilities through Microsoft will initially be available in China, starting in Q1 2010, through either pre-load or over-the-air updates for (Andriod based) devices already in market."

Implications for SEO?

It depends on your audience and objectives of you website:

• Do you want people to find you trough their phones?
• Is there an interesting opportunity that comes from the mobile market?
• Do you want to be promoted on a local environment?

If you said yes to the previous questions, think of this:

• Optimize your local searches in Bing. If people are looking for "Web development company in Beijing" using Bing, what will they find? We know Bing loves keyword rich domains and URLs.
• Try to for search yourself using Bing Maps! Are you there? If not, look at which are the first results and what are they doing to rank well on Beijing and Shanghai maps?
• How does you site looks in a Smartphone? Think of getting low page load times, good JavaScript degradation and CSS style adapted for mobile phones.

More and more searches will come from phones in China, especially those for local things, so get ready to <strong>SEO for Bing</strong> and develop good websites for mobile devices!