Google’s android is by far the most popular operating system in the Mobile space. Its dominance is even more relevant in the Chinese mobile Market where it enjoys nearly 85% market share. However does market share necessarily translate to profits for Google in China? Or is this market entirely different?
China has over 1.2 billion mobile phone users out of which about 68% use internet on their devices (34.5% of these are 3G internet users), making it the largest mobile market in the world. Ironically though unlike in countries like India where Google is the preferred search engine, in China, the market dynamics are entirely different.
Baidu is the leader in the mobile search market with nearly 50% market share followed by companies like Qihoo and Tencent, which have gained market share in recent times. Baidu which has over 80% of the Chinese search market in PCs and laptops, is facing stiff competition from newer rivals like Tencent (which owns the popular WeChat messaging app) in the mobile market. Google search does not even seem to appear in the picture frame while considering this market.
To make matters worse for Google, hardly 5.6% of the android users in China use the Google Play store to download apps- clearly destroying the revenue stream for Google. In fact most mobile manufacturers as well as third party companies create their own app stores for the Chinese consumers. The fact that these third party app stores rule the market can be easily judged from the fact that Baidu last year acquired 91 Wireless, one of the popular app stores, for a whopping 1.9 billion USD. Now if you compare it with Instagram getting acquired by Facebook for 1 billion USD and Tumblr by Yahoo! for 1.1 billion USD – You will get the answer! An experiment of similar sort is also being undertaken by Indian mobile manufacturer Micromax which has its own mobile app store, whether it will be a success is yet to be seen.
This post first appeared on IdeasMakeMarket.com - India's Finest Management Po, please read the originial post: here
