China Working on Its Own State-Run Search Engine

China is working on its own state-run search engine. It is not the first venture of its kind, but the latest move enjoys the backing of China Mobile Communications and Xinhua News Agency.

China Mobile Communications is the country’s largest mobile operator and the world’s largest carrier in terms of subscribers. Its huge user base would ensure that the new search engine has an instant huge audience, at least on the mobile front.

The Xinhua News Agency is the country’s official, state-run agency. Xinhua’s role in the joint venture, under the Search Engine New Media International Communications Company moniker, is less clear, but it will be the dominant player. Its media content and online presence could help jump start the search engine.

The two companies say the move is part of a broader move by the government which wants to build a stronger presence online to “safeguard its information security and push forward the robust, healthy and orderly development of China’s new media industry.”

While the move has been acknowledged by both companies, the details are still scarce. But the new search engine, even with government baking and the two powerful organizations behind it, is facing a very tough market.

Baidu, a local search engine dominates the market with about 70 percent of the searches in the country powered by it. Google occupies a distant but solid second place, with about 25 percent of the market.

China has the largest internet market in the world, with more than 420 million users at the last count. It also has a huge mobile market with over 800 million subscribers.

China Mobile has about 550 million subscribers. If it were to enforce its own search engine as the default option for mobile users, many of which don’t have phones capable of accessing the web, though, it would instantly be a huge player in the market. But it’s hard to tell if this will translate into success on the desktop front as well.