The split in search engine market share in the US can look like a pie cut into ten pieces. Microsoft has one piece, Yahoo has two more, and Google has seven.
Microsoft plus Yahoo make just over a quarter of the pie, if the failed deal this spring had gone through – still not enough to compete with the Mighty Google.
Overseas it’s a different slice of pie. Yandex is holding its own in Russia against the Google onslaught, managing to keep almost half the pie in its own hands. Seznam has an even bigger chunk of Czech search, and the Chinese engine Baidu is solidly planted over two thirds of that country’s pie plate. Yahoo splits it down the middle in Japan, where Google is trailing badly.
Why is Google having so much trouble in the foreign market? Some think they haven’t paid enough attention to cultural differences in their marketing efforts. It requires a delicate hand to introduce ‘Western’ thought into some countries, and Google doesn’t always have a lot of tact.
Microsoft is in a unique position as regards the global market share. They had earmarked forty billion to purchase Yahoo’s 20% of the US market share to become second in the country. Why don’t they spend some of that money making it number one elsewhere?
Baidu is valued at just nine billion. Double that for a controlling interest, and Microsoft has a foothold in the country that just passed the US for the most internet users. Microsoft would have plenty left over to snap up Yandex and Seznam as well, and the game would be afoot.
Until all three search engines realize that this is a global thing, not a matter of just one country, each will be crippled in their constant battle for supremacy and Google will win by default. For how long, is the question. Google seems to be fat and satisfied, and real innovation comes rarely.
As Google continues to build on the same technology they have had for ten years, the techno world is becoming restless for something fresh and new. Who knows what that may be – another prodigy living in his parents garage or basement could arise with a vision of an easier, purer way to search – but until then the only way to defeat the Mighty Google may be to outflank them on unfamiliar ground.
Tags: Baidu, China, market share, Seznam, Yandex