Category Archives: Culture

Google vs. Baidu: A User Experience Analysis

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There are tons of articles about Google vs. Baidu, but few of these articles take an in-depth look at how Google compares to Baidu from a Chinese user’s perspective.

In this article, I do just that, and I render a verdict as to which Web site is better.

Search

The best way to compare search engine quality is to compare searches.

I recently input three Chinese keywords for my experiment:

  • 许霆 (Xu Ting: A Chinese citizen who was recently involved in a controversial criminal case)
  • 次级房贷 (Subprime mortgage)
  • 看羹吃饭 (Kan-Geng-Chi-fan: A phrase used and recognized by a relatively small number of Chinese, meaning that you have to think carefully before taking action)

These keywords represent three different categories of information people search for online. Xu Ting is a hot keyword in China at the moment but it has received little international media coverage. Subprime mortgage, on the other hand, is a foreign concept and the term has been transliterated into Chinese characters from the English equivalent. Kan-Geng-Chi-fan is used within a specific dialect that is not used by the majority of Chinese citizens.

Okay, here are the results as of April 18, 2008:

“Xu Ting”

It would seem that Baidu knows much more about Xu Ting than Google, although I did not verify that every result referred to this particular individual.

Interestingly, in the first results page of both google.com and google.cn, one of the search results directed users to Baidu Post — Baidu’s popular user forum.

Overall, I would rate both sites equally because the top 20 results from each search engine were highly qualified and I could easily find information I wanted from there. Verdict: A tie.

“Subprime mortgage”

This time google.cn appears to do much better than Baidu. But if we look closely at the top 20 search results, we’ll find there are 7 results at google.com and 5 results at google.cn that direct us to Web sites that use traditional Chinese characters, which are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by the overseas Chinese community.

It can be rather challenging for the mainland Chinese to read traditional Chinese, though they can understand most of the message. Nonetheless, this mix of simplified and traditional Characters is not the most user-friendly approach. Verdict: Baidu wins.

“Kan Geng Chi Fan”

At first glance, Google produced overwhelmingly more information than Baidu. However, if we examine the details, Google did not perform so well. Neither Google.com nor Google.cn produce an accurate search result within the first 10 pages respectively, while all the 207 search results from Baidu are accurate. Verdict: Baidu wins again.

Based on these three searches, Google comes across as a bit complicated and “foreign” to Chinese users. Baidu is the superior Chinese search engine.

Products

Both Google and Baidu are trying to leverage their network effects to promote other products. Google has many excellent products, but not every product has performed well in China. For example, Google Maps is widely used by American users. Unfortunately, Google Maps in China is unable to provide the same features due to unavailability of mapping data in China. Google’s satellite map currently only covers the major Chinese cities. Should Google acquire better maps, it would have a clear advantage over Baidu, which doesn’t offer the same degree of functionality and usability in its map tool.

Although music copyright is a controversial issue within China, the market reality is that millions of Chinese Internet users download free music online. Baidu understands this reality and its music search product — which presents a list of links for free music downloads when people search by song, singer, or label — is extremely popular. Google is unable to compete with Baidu in this regard due to its adherence to US copyright laws.

Another example is Baidu Post, an online forum allowing Internet user to create new topics based on search keywords and provide commentary. When people search online by keyword, they can also follow these keywords to Baidu Post, where they may find additional information — or at least find out what others think of the selected keywords.

Online forums are a very important medium in China for distributing information online. I think an important reason for this is because the Chinese, as well as many businesses, want to remain anonymous. While this may change in the years ahead as the next generation embraces social networking sites, for the time being, online forums are dominant. Baidu also offers a blog platform (Hi Baidu) while Google has localized Blogger into Chinese, very few Chinese people currently use it.

Local culture and consumer behavior are critical factors in determining whether a product will succeed in an overseas market or not. So far, Google products have not been as appealing as Baidu to Chinese users.

The Brand Name

The name of Baidu (百度) is from a beautiful Chinese ancient poem:

Thousands of times, I looked for my girl;

Suddenly, at some point, I stopped and looked back,

I found she was just over there among a bunch of lanterns.

This poem, written by Qiji Xin, who lived in the Song Dynasty nearly 1000 years ago, is still very popular in China and also taught in high schools. Baidu in Chinese means thousands of times. In Chinese culture, this poem communicates one’s desire to achieve his/her dreams. Obviously, meshes well with the services offered by Baidu, a company that claims it better understands Chinese users and Chinese culture.

Google started to use its Chinese name Guge (谷歌) in 2006. Guge (goo-ge) is transliterated from Google and it literally means “the song of grain” in Chinese. A survey conducted in 2006 shows 84.6% Chinese do not like this name. I think the most important reason is that Chinese people want to feel international and modern. This is also one reason you may see many Chinese companies using English words in their marketing materials, as it creates an international effect. The “song of grain” presents an image of the agricultural society that the Chinese people are striving to break away from.

Google has exerted a good deal of effort in localizing its name for China but it has not yet been accepted by the Chinese people. It may take some time. Some companies have chosen to simply use their English names in China, avoiding localization altogether, such as IBM.

To sum up, Baidu definitely has an edge over Google in China. But it is early yet and Google has been doing things such as redesigning its Chinese home page, which may resonate with users. The key takeaway here is that every new market is a new challenge; just because you are number one at home does not mean you will be number one in every country you enter. Should Baidu enter the US market some day, it will face many of the same challenges that Google is now facing in China.

Localization in China

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I am pleased to have been invited by John Yunker to contribute thoughts on the localization industry in China. I welcome your comments and suggestions for future articles. Here’s my first posting -

Four years ago, I was working for a localization company in Shanghai. One day, I received a phone call from a woman who said: “I read your advertisement about localization services. We’ve just moved to Shanghai and I was wondering if you could help find a baby-sitter for us.” This may sound like a strange request, but it was not that unusual back then.

Fortunately, times have changed, and quickly. China has become one of the most important regional markets in the world for multinational corporations:

  • 470 of the Fortune 500 companies have invested in China;
  • 750+ multinational companies, including Microsoft, Intel, GE, and Motorola have established R&D centers in China;
  • In 2006, 144 multinational companies chose Shanghai as their Asia-Pacific regional headquarters, while 36 chose Beijing. These numbers are certain to grow.

And then there are the 210 million Internet users in China, according to CNNIC, making the country an alluring market for any Web-based service or application.

However, Chinese Web users have proven to be very selective when choosing news, ecommerce, and networking products. More often than not, they are choosing home-grown products. For example:

  • Despite Google’s best efforts thus far, Baidu is still the number one search engine in China.
  • Sina, Sohu, and Netease remain the three biggest news portals in this market, and not Yahoo! China.
  • QQ is an IM tool developed by Tencent, a local company. It now has 160 million registered users and 50 million active users, greatly outnumbering the users of Yahoo Massager, MSN, and Google Talk.
  • Although MySpace has been successful in the States, it seems that Chinese people are more interested in local social networking sites, such as Mop and Tianya.

These few examples demonstrate the significant challenges that companies face when localizing for China. There are cultural, financial, and lingustic obstacle to overcome — many of which I plan to address in more detail in future articles.

Campbell Soup in Russia: Is it “Navaristy” Enough

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Speaking of Russia, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Campbell Soup is making a big push into both Russia and China. The company makes most of its money from the US and just a small amount of money overseas, which is not the best place to be if you want to ride the growing global economy.

According to the article, “Chinese and Russians eat soup more than five times a week, on average, compared with Americans’ once-a-week, Campbell says. In China, 320 billion bowls of soup are consumed each year, compared with 32 billion in Russia and just 14 billion in the U.S.”

Campbells Soup in Russia

Campbell took a crack at China in the 1990s but didn’t do well because it made no effort to localize the product. Campbell is not alone in this regard; see my post on Disney.

For Russia, Campbell has invested in learning all about how the locals make and view soup. For starters, the company has learned that Russians have created unique words specifically to describe soup, such as navaristy. Says the article, navaristy “refers to a thick, heavy soup like the ones Campbell plans to sell in Russia: a beef broth with pieces of meat, onions and potatoes; a chicken broth with chicken, onions and potatoes; and a mushroom soup with large pieces of mushrooms, onions and seasonings.”

Campbell is no stranger to Web localization. It currently offers sites for countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Japan.

I checked to see if Campbell had a Russian Web site in place. Nothing so far that I could find. What’s worse, it appears that www.campbellsoup.ru has been taken by a squatter.

Google Gets Animated in Korea

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In case you thought that Google’s austere home page design was sacrosanct, think again.

In an effort to win over the locals in Korea, Google has just launched a new design that not only features twice as much text, but also features animation:
Google Korea 2007

Try it out yourself.

According to Search Engine Land, “The new, animated Google Korea home page is intended to help Google better compete in the country where it seeks to gain market share. ‘It was important where our classic minimalism wasn’t working that we adapt,’ Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience at Google, told Danny Sullivan in a briefing earlier today.”

Google isn’t alone in this regard. I often hear from global Webmasters and marketing execs in global companies based in the US and Europe who often do battle with their Web designers and managers in Asia who insist on using lots of Flash-generated animation and dense amounts of text. But what may seem busy and downright silly to a Westerner is anything but to consumers in many parts of Asia.

Does that mean that Western companies have to give up their Web designs when localizing for Korea? Well, they certainly need to be flexible. I recommend a global design template in which the “global” elements take up very little real estate. This will allow for plenty of local customization.

Google Korea is a case study to watch closely. Even with its animated home page, the design is still spare when compared to the likes of Naver and Empas.