Google Trying to Combat Baidu's Dominance in China

The latest releases show that Google (GOOG) will start to offer free music downloads in China. The company has partnered with several music labels and is expected to provide 350,000 tracks for free download. Later on, it will add up to 1.1 million tracks.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) estimates that 99% of the music distributed last year in China was illegal.

China, together with Russia, is another big market where Google plays a secondary role. Baidu (BIDU) is the most used search engine in China with market share 60% and still growing. Google has around 26%.

I have already posted about Google's strategy (Google vs. Baidu) on how to gain market share in China. Google acquired several online companies from gaming or social networking sectors. This step into the music industry is actually how Baidu became successful. Remember that Baidu started as a free MP3 tracks downloader. Let's see how Google will succeed with this new step to combat Baidu dominance.

Comments

[modelportfo...:]

The press release discussed the higher quality of the Google China music download. Does this matter to most downloaders and is the quality expected to be much better?

Comments?

Mar 31 08:55 AM