Don't Call It Bing in China... Unless You Like Pancakes
Story from WSJ

After a brief hiatus last week, software giant Microsoft's Bing search engine is back online in China.

Microsoft launched a Chinese version of Bing on June 1 at cn.bing.com, marking the first time the company has offered a Web product specifically targeted at the 298 million Web users in mainland China. But unlike its American counterpart (and like many of the other international versions of Bing), Chinese Bing is still a bit of a shell at this point, without all of the handy features that are available on the U.S. search engine.

And in China, Microsoft prefers not to call it "bing," since that sound can have several meanings in Mandarin, depending on the tone and character associated with it. For example, this word: 病. Pronounced bing (fourth tone), it means "sickness" or "to be ill," something most people would prefer to avoid. Other "bings" mean ice, soldier and pancake.

The Chinese version has thus been named "biying" (必应) which means "must respond/answer" and which Microsoft is marketing it as a"decision engine"– something that will provide information to assist Internet users with their decision-making processes.

Initial reviews in China have been mixed. Some users have expressed disappointment after comparing the Chinese version of Bing with China's other leading search engines Google and Baidu, as well as with the U.S. version of Bing. On his blog, Franky Xu noted that though the company is trying to provide unique features exclusively for Chinese users, the localization of the product is poorly done. "It's impossible to go back to the original U.S. version directly through the Chinese site, but you can do that with Google," he said, adding that "some of the recommended keywords didn't make sense." One feature he missed from the U.S. version is the pop-up window that shows a preview of another Web site when the mouse cursor is hovered over a Web link.

Without additional context or background information, users have also been confused by the daily home page images. "The picture is beautiful, but very non-China" said one user (in Chinese)."I guess eight or nine out of ten Chinese have no idea where it is when seeing this."

One function that has won over many users in China is the video search, which allows videos to be played directly from within the thumbnails on the search result pages (a feature that's not available on Google or Baidu).

But industry analysts say this new move by Microsoft is unlikely to alter the competitive landscape in China, since Microsoft's share of the search market has been negligible. The market is currently dominated by Baidu and Google, with respective market shares of 59% and 30.6%, according to Internet research firm Analysis International. (Google boosted its market share to over 30% for the first time this year through its launch of music search and free download service, according to analysts.) Other major players in the market include Yahoo China and Sohu.com's Sogou.

Search Engines and Sites Battle for Chinese Web Users





China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to invest five billion yuan, or about $725 million, in its Taobao.com online shopping site over the next five years, the latest sign of an intensifying battle with Chinese Internet-search giant Baidu.com Inc.

Alibaba Group's investment more than doubles an earlier plan to spend two billion yuan on Taobao and is more than three times the 1.5 billion yuan Alibaba has invested in the site since it was established in 2003.

The move comes as Baidu is gearing up to challenge Taobao's status as China's No. 1 auction site by sales volume. Baidu last month started testing its consumer e-commerce platform, with 10,000 sellers drawn from across China. Baidu Youa, which translates as "Baidu Got It!," is expected to open before year end. The company declined to reveal how much it is spending.

Alibaba's decision was prompted by faster-than-expected growth for online shopping, not Baidu's move, Alibaba Chief Financial Officer Joseph Tsai said Wednesday.

Internet consulting firm iResearch projected that the total value of Chinese online consumer sales will increase to 126 billion yuan this year from 16 billion yuan in 2005. Taobao users bought and sold 43.3 billion yuan in goods on the site last year, Alibaba said. Transactions reached 41.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year. "We believe that online commerce will outgrow the Chinese economy," Mr. Tsai said.

About a third of China's 253 million Internet users have shopped online, research firm China IntelliConsulting Corp. reported last month, with three-quarters of online shoppers using Taobao at least once.

When Taobao came onto the scene in 2003, it undercut then-market leader eBay Inc. by not requiring sellers to pay fees for listing or selling. As eBay users switched to Taobao, the U.S. company was forced to drop its fees before dropping out of China altogether.

But competition is intensifying. EBay last year joined forces with TOM Online Inc., the mainland China Internet subsidiary of Hong Kong's TOM Group Ltd., to relaunch its auction site under the Eachnet brand. The site now has roughly an 8% market share of gross sales volume, according to iResearch. Tencent Holding Ltd.'s three-year-old Paipai.com has 9% -- a distant second to Taobao's 76% share.

"It will be hard for [Baidu] to get the market share from Taobao because users have very strong loyalty to Taobao," said Ning Liu, an analyst at technology-consulting firm BDA. "If Baidu's e-commerce platform cannot provide differentiated services it will be hard for it to take off." Mr. Liu said Baidu's main advantage is its search-engine presence, since many Internet users search Baidu for products they want to buy online. Baidu has 65.8% of the search market, according to China IntelliConsulting.

Alibaba's new investment will go toward technology upgrades, research and development, and marketing and promotion efforts on behalf of Taobao sellers, Mr. Tsai said. The company also plans to open Taobao's technology platform to third-party software providers for the site.

Funding will come from Alibaba Group's cash reserves, Mr. Tsai said. Last year's initial public offering of the group's business-to-business platform, Alibaba.com Ltd., in Hong Kong brought in $1.2 billion for the parent company.