Qihoo, also known as 360Search and So.com, is the second largest Chinese search engine. By various estimates, it holds between 15 to 25% of the search market share and is fairly popular among younger users.

It is also often noted that Qihoo search results tend to be more accurate than Baidu’s and advertising with Qihoo is also a bit cheaper. Despite once posing a real threat to Baidu’s dominance, Qihoo is still trailing Baidu in terms of overall popularity.

Qihoo Index is the keyword research tool that can be used to complement Baidu’s. Also, it doesn’t require registering an account which makes it a bit easier. Other than that, the functionality and the type of data Qihoo Index generates is quite similar to Baidu Index which was covered earlier.

Here we are using the same keyword “iPhone8” to see the results. The first panel presents the total number of searches and the trends overtime. Just like with Baidu Index, the data can be displayed for the last 7, 30 or 90 days as well as for custom date ranges.

The top panel shows 5,340 searches for iPhone 8 over the last 30 days which is about 5 times less searches on Baidu for the same period.

Similar to Baidu, Qihoo index indicates various kinks, peaks and valleys of the curve with a letter corresponding to a specific media mention. Hovering over those letters opens a pop-up with more details on the source linked to an article:

Another Qihoo Index graph specifically focuses on media mentions. Just like with Baidu, each change in the curve can be further examined for more details related to a specific news source.

The graph above displays search activity in the last 24 hours. Quite predictably, the search reaches two of its peaks in the morning and afternoon with a dip in between (a lunch break?) before flattening out during the night hours.

Next diagram shows related keywords in key phrase surrounding the main keyword. Analogous to Baidu, the keywords are grouped based on search volumes and relevant position:

Related searches data displays the keywords searched by users before or after that specific search term. In this case, “iPhone 8 price” was the strongest related key phrase. Also, users seem to be often searching for iPhone 8 pictures:

Also like Baidu, Qihoo Index also shows geographic distribution of searches. It seems that most iPhone 8 related searches were coming from the richest Chinese provinces and cities which reflects traditional popularity of Apple products in those areas.

Insights into audience are largely similar to the results we have seen with Baidu for the same term: men represent the majority (70% vs. 30%). The age brackets used by Qihoo are a bit different with Baidu: almost half of the people interested in iPhone 8 were aged between 25 and 34.

Another dimension that is available only with Qihoo Index is classification of the users by attributes. Apparently, Qihoo uses other search terms attributed to the same user in order to build what is called “persona” in marketing. Learning more about customer profiles through this method can provide further useful insights for a marketer.

Continue to Weibo Index tutorial >>>

Here are our tutorials on China keyword research tools:

Keyword research on Baidu: Baidu Index

Keyword research on Qihoo: Qihoo Index

Keyword research on Weibo: Weibo Index

Keyword research on WeChat: WeChat Index

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Up until the middle of 2016, Chinese PPC, especially with Baidu, was, on average, delivering better returns than SEO. This was due to several factors:

• First, the search results, especially for popular terms, were dominated by paid ads. In some cases, hardly any organic results would be displayed in the first page;
• Second, there was little visual distinction in Baidu between paid and organic results and most people couldn’t even tell the difference.

Things have changed significantly since the most recent scandal involving fraudulent Baidu medical ads that led to the death of young cancer sufferer. Following public outcry and negative publicity, Chinese government published new rules concerning Baidu advertising that, among other things, recommended limiting paid results to no more than 30% of SERP (search engine results pages).

Also, the new rules require ads to be more easily distinguishable from organic results in order to minimize the confusion between them.

Baidu, as well as other Chinese search engines, have announced their commitment to comply with the new rules (not that they had any choice in the matter anyway). Less advertising space has inevitably led to increased cost of PPC advertising which has made such campaigns more expensive than they could have been in the past.

On the positive side, the quality of ads is supposed to improve which may, at least in theory, increase trustworthiness of paid ads from a user standpoint.

How to choose between PPC vs. SEO for Chinese market

When it comes to SEO, organic results are now guaranteed to feature prominently in Chinese SERPs which makes SEO a more worthwhile investment than it would have been before the new rules were implemented.

On the other hand, you still need to consider different pros and cons of each strategy.

One of the most important consideration is the time frame. Getting results from PPC is almost instant while building SEO traffic takes time. Typically, it would take somewhere between 3 to 6 months to start seeing some benefits from SEO and 9-12 months of consistent efforts to build a stable organic ranking to show up high enough in SERPs. If you can’t wait that long than PPC is probably the best route to choose.

In addition, since the feedback is fast and measurable, PPC is best at testing different keywords to see which ones work better. Tweaking SEO keywords takes much longer feedback loop.

Calculating which strategy would be more profitable also requires knowing LTV (life time value) of a customer. This figure can then be compared to the cost of acquiring that customer with either SEO or PPC. As a general rule, SEO tends to be a better fit for high volume, low LTV cases.

Another disadvantage of SEO for Chinese market compared to PPC that is worth mentioning is its sensitivity to Baidu algorithms changes. When that happens, an optimized site can lose ranking practically overnight which makes SEO an ongoing, hence expensive, effort.

Obviously PPC doesn’t have this weakness since you are paying Baidu for getting visitors bypassing their ranking algorithms.
On the other hand, organic results are generally considered to be more trustworthy and therefore are more likely to be clicked than the ads. Since now Chinese engines are required to implement more visual distinction between paid and organic results, visitors are becoming more aware of which is which and tend to favor organic ones.

Considering the above point, SEO for Chinese market seems to offer the better value in search marketing than PPC as a long term strategy. There is an exception however: if your niche is dominated by established players or authority sites that have been building their reputation for years, it is highly unlikely that you would be able to unseat them. However, if you employ PPC you still may be able to outbid them.
In conclusion, choosing between SEO and PPC requires answering three basic questions:

• Can you afford waiting a few months for the results or time is of the essence?
• How LTV of your customer stacks against the cost of their acquisition with either strategy?
• How competitive is your space and whether you have a realistic chance to achieve high organic ranking vs. existing sites?

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Moreover, Baidu is also the leading choice for searches on mobile devices, the increasingly important Chinese search engines market. In June 2016, it was reported that Baidu had 667 million monthly active users (MAU) just for that month alone.

Baidu is still the leader of Chinese search engines market

The entire Chinese search engines market has been growing at fairly steady rate since 2010, adding each year somewhere between 50 and 70 million new users. This year, it is estimated to have reached about 600 million regular users, about 3 quarters of which go to Baidu as their service of choice.

In many ways, Baidu has been following, if not copying, Google’s business strategy. It has diversified its business into areas that are identical to Google’s: from navigation and self-driving cars to AI (artificial intelligence) and VR (virtual reality).

Although, it did hit a few bumps on the road, such as recent scandals with its medical ads and illegal promotions of gambling sites, it is hard to imagine Baidu being knocked off its primary position among Chinese search engines any time soon.

The other Chinese search engines that are worth mentioning are Qihoo (aka Search360) and Sogou. Qihoo in particular has been growing relatively fast in recent years and was the only one that was ever in a position to somewhat threaten Baidu’s dominance in Chinese search engines market, although it is no longer the case.

When it comes to advertising, Baidu should always be considered as the first choice, mainly because of its largest reach. On average, Baidu CPC (cost per click) tends to be higher than Google across almost all industries. Most likely, it will continue to increase as Baidu has been experiencing fall in profits and will probably increase prices as time goes by.

Another reason to focus on Baidu is the fact that its technology is the most advanced. This ultimately affects advertisement CTR (click through rate) through higher relevancy with the search terms.

Baidu has also been active in the video market and currently owns one of the largest online video hosting platforms called iQiYi. As videos are quickly becoming one of the most popular types of content consumed online, Baidu is in a good position to take advantage of that market as well.

In addition, Baidu, like Google, is very good at remarketing which is built into its display network with over 600,000 partner websites in China. Managing both search ads and display ads is done within the same Baidu advertising account where user can simply split the budget between the two channels.

One of the biggest hustles associated with Baidu PPC is opening the advertising account. Unless your company has Chinese business registration, applying for Baidu account involves quite a bit of paperwork and a long verification process. Baidu would typically request translated version of your foreign business license and may require additional proof of incorporation. Companies in financial and medical fields would most certainly be scrutinized more carefully and multiple requests for additional licenses are quite common.

Verification of a website (which must be in Chinese) often leads to more requests to change certain sections (most commonly “about us” part). All this is aimed at making sure that the advertiser is not misrepresenting its business nature and is a legitimate company which will not become involved in promoting anything illegal.

This process is in sharp contrast with Google’s where anyone with a Gmail and a credit card can open an account and start running campaigns almost immediately.

The situation is not that much different with the other Chinese search engines such as Qihoo and Sogou. They also require business registration and licenses from foreign applicants and must follow similar verification process. Once approved, running PPC campaign with those engines is quite similar to Baidu. On the positive side, for businesses that are not in very competitive niches, CPC on Qihoo and Sogou can be substantially lower compared to Baidu. Therefore, it is a good idea to try those engines as well in parallel, although not instead of, Baidu.

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When considering China SEM strategy, Baidu is usually the one that gets most attention from marketers. It is primarily due to its larger reach – by different accounts, Baidu holds between 60 to 70% of China search engine market. On the other hand, Baidu doesn’t enjoy the same type of dominance as Google does in the West. It is also becoming more difficult every year for Baidu to maintain its lead as it has to fight off increasingly aggressive and sophisticated competitors.

One such powerful competitor is 360 Search which has been a solid number two in the market for the last few years. By different estimates, it currently holds 25-30% of Chinese search engine market share. Its main search so.com, is the 4th most visited website in China (after baidu.com, qq.com and taobao.com).

360 Search covers about two thirds of all Chinese internet users and claims to develop its own unique ranking algorithms. It is also the first Chinese search engine to offer online fraud compensation.

Search engine is not the only product of 360 Search. The company also owns several popular internet properties such as 360 directory – the most visited portal in China, China’s number one Android app store, China’s second most popular internet browser and the most popular anti-virus program.

It also produces its own mobile phone brand, car accessories as well as various electronic devices ranging from security cameras to smart watches.

Why 360 Search SEM can be an effective addition to China marketer’s toolbox?

First of all, in general, 360 Search keyword bidding price tends to be considerably lower than Baidu’s. It is not unusual to see 360 Search bidding price to be half of that of Baidu’s for the same keyword.

Second, marketers report that, on average, the conversion rate is about 15% higher with 360 Search vs. Baidu. This fact alone is a good enough reason to include 360 Search in the overall marketing strategy alongside, or sometimes, instead of, Baidu.

Third reason why some marketers may favor 360 Search SEM is the fact that it is easier for a foreign company to register an advertiser’s account with this search engine compared to Baidu. Although, all Chinese search engines have to follow the same rules set by China’s internet authorities and require similar paperwork, processing of an application with 360 Search is often faster and more straightforward.

When it comes to initial costs, 360 Search and Baidu also differ significantly. Unlike Baidu, 360 Search doesn’t charge account setup fee. However, the initial ad spend deposit requirement is higher compared to Baidu: it is currently set to minimum RMB 30,000 vs. Baidu’s 5,000 (it is negotiable in some cases). On the other hand, there is no time limit on how long it should take to spend that budget on the ads.

Finally, the campaign management backend is also somewhat easier to navigate compared to Baidu’s (although both are only available in Chinese).

In subsequent posts, we are going to take a closer look at different 360 Search marketing options.

Interested in reaching millions of Chinese with 360 Search SEM?

We can help!

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360 Search PPC options

Despite holding a smaller search engine market share compared to Baidu, 360 Search PPC can often be a more cost effective option thanks to considerably lower keywords bidding price. The bids for identical keywords are often as low as half of Baidu’s which gives marketers more mileage on a given budget by running 360 Search PPC campaign vs. Baidu.

Although Baidu is still the largest search engine, it is nowhere near Google style market dominance in western market, accounting for somewhere between 60 to 70% of the market.

360 Search market share takes the major part of what is left plus there is around 16% user overlap between the two search engines. Also, 360 Search is often considered a bit more “hip” compared to Baidu and, as a results, tends to attract younger and well educated user base with more purchasing power. This also explains the fact that, on average, 360 Search PPC campaign conversion rate is about 15% higher than Baidu’s.

In addition to search ads, 360 Search also offers its own display network where text or banner ads are served on relevant sites and apps. Display network marketing is an effective re-marketing (re-targeting) tool and is designed to serve ads to users who have already visited a specific sites, have run similar searches or have purchased certain products.

Based on ad settings, 60 Search PPC results can be displayed in two formats: as site links with thumbnails (2-比翼) or text links (1-搜索文字链):

When users search for physical products, the results can also be displayed as product links using 360 Search PPC option called “fengwu” (3-凤舞):

When it comes to results display, 360 Search offers additional options similar to Baidu brand zone: brand express (4-品牌直达), brand sunrise (5-品牌日出) and premium zone (6-品牌甄选):

360 Search display network allows effective remarketing to users who have either visited a site or searched for a similar term. It is typically done by placing ad banners on relevant site like shown below (7-横幅):

Interested in reaching millions of Chinese with 360 Search SEM?

We can help!

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Communication, browsing mobile internet, listening to music and watching videos are the most common activities of Chinese mobile users. Not surprisingly, companies who traditionally dominated those niches on the internet have also been the leading providers on mobile.

Interestingly enough, not only that there isn’t a single non-Chinese app in the top 10 list, they don’t even make the first 50. In fact, the only foreign app that enjoys some popularity in China is Google’s mobile Chrome browser.

Top 10 Mobile Apps in China

#1: WeChat

Having been installed with almost every Chinese smartphone, WeChat is the undisputed leader of mobile apps in China. WeChat user base has recently passed 700 million and continues growing. Tencent, WeChat developer, is one of the most innovative Chinese tech firms and is part of the so called BAT – the acronym for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

#2: QQ

QQ is another hugely popular messaging app that has been the flagship Tencent product before WeChat. In fact, it is still the most popular communication tool on desktops and, is, perhaps, the most well known Chinese internet brand. Overall, its migration to mobile has been largely successful as offers a simple alternative to WeChat, although most people still use both. In fact, you are unlikely to meet a Chinese person below 50 who doesn’t have a QQ number.

#3: Mobile Baidu

While Baidu holds “only” about 60% of desktop search market in China, it completely dominates mobile with about 90% market share. Baidu mobile app is the third most used mobile app in China. It is also well designed, very fast, and accepts multiple input modes. Baidu is another part of BAT mentioned earlier.

#4: Taobao

When Chinese are not chatting or searching mobile net, they are shopping. Browsing Taobao app, is one of the most favorite pastimes for millions of people and it is often highly addictive. It is not uncommon to notice people shopping on their phone with Taobao app while eating, riding a subway or even driving…

#5: UC Browser

UC Browser is a mobile browser developed by Chinese mobile Internet company UCWeb. UC Browser claimed to have reached 500 million users in March 2014 majority of which were in China. It is still the most popular mobile browser here despite 2015 leaks linked to whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing some serious security weak points of UC Browser.

#6: QQ Browser

QQ Browser is the second most popular mobile browser across all mobile platforms. Tencent, has been leveraging their browser app installation using their other popular platforms mentioned earlier.

#7: Tencent Video

Watching videos is another most popular activity of Chinese mobile users and QQ video has been their platform of choice. Tencent video app has recently surpassed YouKu, the most popular Chinese video platform, in terms of mobile market share. Most commonly, it is used for watching TV soap operas and TV game shows while on the go.

#8: Sogou Mobile Input

Initially released in 2006, Sogou Pinyin is the most popular Chinese input software. It makes use of its search engine techniques which are the analysis and categorization of the most popular words or phrases on the Internet. Its mobile app version can be used with both Android and iOS devices offering dozens of colorful keyboards with hundreds of popular emojis and stickers that are so popular with Chinese mobile users.

#9: 360 Mobile Security

This app serves as both antivirus and memory management app and is most popular with Android devices, although it can installed with iPhones as well. It was developed by the second most popular Chinese search engine, Qihoo, also known as 360 Search. Qihoo 360 security software has a large install base on desktop, largely thanks to its free antivirus software.

#10: YouKu

YouKu is the largest video hosting platform and is among most popular video mobile apps in China. Although, it has been losing its mobile share market to Tencent, YouKu isn’t too far behind in terms of popularity. Often associated with pirated shows and films in the past, YouKu has largely cleaned up its act and now claims to only host legitimate content. Millions of Chinese tune to YouKu for their favorite TV shows everyday.

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