The giants are attacking: Will mobile search change?

After UC and Alibaba jointly launched Shenma, Sogou also launched a mobile search app with the support of Tencent. In this competition, both Yu Yongfu and Zhang Chaoyang have made bold statements to challenge Baidu. Is it really that easy to challenge? How important is mobile search?

Giant Baidu and his friends

In the PC era, the most typical application scenario was to open a browser and enter the address of Baidu to test whether you could access the Internet. At that time, search engines were the most competitive entrance, and there were very few Internet companies that could generate their own traffic without relying on search engines.

With the rise of mobile Internet, Baidu and Google, which once established their empire in the search industry, have rapidly grown into new leaders in the mobile search field. According to the report "The Future of Mobile Internet" released by foreign online media Business Insider, Google's mobile search market share is as high as 95%; while in China's mobile search industry, Baidu is the leader. In the data released by various statistical agencies, Baidu is undisputedly ranked first, and its market share has exceeded 50% for many consecutive years.

An obvious fact is that no matter how drastic the disruption and reshuffle of mobile Internet is, there is no need to emphasize that mobile Internet is not just the mobility of the Internet. Relying on the huge user base of the PC era and early layout, the BAT Big Three have still maintained their respective business positions while mobile Internet is coming.

But just as Baidu faced strong challenges from 360 on the PC side, when UC and Alibaba jointly launched Shenma in April, Yu Yongfu said that Shenma search had a penetration rate of more than 20% of Chinese users in the first quarter of 2014. After releasing the 20% satellite, Yu Yongfu even publicly stated that there was another big move waiting to be launched against Baidu.

Then, on May 8, Sogou, relying on Tencent's support, also launched a new strategy for mobile search. At the press conference, Zhang Chaoyang said that with the technical level of the team and the strong support of Tencent, they will begin to launch the most fierce challenge to Baidu on mobile phones. Tencent President Martin Lau also believes that the mobile search market is full of variables, "In the mobile era, people, information, and social networking have more explosive value. Tencent hopes to connect people through social platforms, and then connect people to all valuable services. For the future, we can see the chemical reaction between social networking and search."

Of course, 360 is indispensable to this challenge. Zhou Hongyi recently made it clear that 360 mobile search will be released soon.

In addition to the giants, there are also small and medium-sized enterprises such as Yisou and Zhongsou making money in this field.

The embarrassing situation of mobile search

Does the scramble by giants mean that mobile search has become a “super portal”?

Judging from the scale, the current performance of the mobile search market does not seem to be bad. According to the data from the "2014 China Mobile Internet Industry Annual Research Report" released by iResearch Consulting Group, in the past year, the scale of China's mobile Internet users reached 500 million. In 2013, the scale of China's mobile Internet market was 106.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81.2%. It is expected that by 2017, the market scale will be close to 500 billion yuan. Such rapid growth naturally makes mobile search rise. In 2013, the scale of China's mobile search market was 4.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of 264.1%. In the next few years, the scale of the mobile search market will usher in a peak period of growth.

However, the market's perception does not match this.

In the early days of mobile Internet, mobile search played a very important role. At that time, there were almost no super apps with hundreds of millions of users, and search engines on browsers quickly rose to prominence by leveraging users' habits in the Internet era. According to the thinking mode at that time, mobile search was an important entry point. Of course, more than 90% of the information in early mobile searches still came from the traditional Internet, and the so-called mobile search was just an extension of the PC.

However, with the gradual popularization of smartphones and the emergence of giant applications such as WeChat, various apps have begun to play a more important role. This non-web-based survival mode has allowed users to start to rely less on browsers. An app that is spread by word of mouth is easier to find and install in various app stores, rather than relying on browser searches.

This has put a group of mobile search engines represented by Yisou, Yicha and Wukong into an awkward survival situation. For a long time, mobile search has not been taken seriously by mobile Internet players, and only Baidu is still struggling to support this industry.

Correspondingly, Baidu's current business model is by no means pure mobile search. It is reported that a large part of Baidu's mobile revenue comes from the packaging of PC resources.

An industry insider believes that this is because PC search engines are web-based, while for mobile terminal users, apps are the core demand. Data shows that Android smartphone users access search engines through browsers an average of only 1.25 times a day.

Some advertisers also expressed their concerns from different levels: although more and more Internet users are switching from desktop computers to mobile devices, mobile device users use search engines less frequently than PC users, and they use applications more often.

Judging from the current situation, it seems quite difficult for mobile search to become a super portal.

A wishful challenge, or another purpose?

Although the current situation does not seem optimistic, the competition among giants seems to mean that this market has huge development potential. But will Baidu be easily driven out?

On the PC side, 360 once challenged Baidu's authority through its huge browser installation volume. 360 almost bet all of the company's future profits on search, and its market value soared to 10 billion US dollars thanks to the launch of 360's search business. At present, UC Mobile Browser has launched an independent mobile search platform Shenma Search, and Sogou Search has joined hands with QQ Browser and Mobile QQ. These practices are exactly the same as 360's entry into search through browsers.

But at that time, 360 was considered to have a huge pressure on Baidu in PC search, because 360 ​​browser had an overwhelming market share advantage and seized the PC Internet access entrance. As long as the search box was replaced with 360 search, Baidu's traffic could be easily diverted. However, in the mobile Internet era, browsers do not have an overwhelming advantage over other major mobile Internet entrances, nor have they cultivated widespread user loyalty; therefore, industry insiders believe that this makes it difficult for Shenma and Sogou to replicate 360's strategy.

Even if Shenma and Sogou can gain an overwhelming market share, Baidu's brand recognition and user stickiness in the search field will easily make them reach the ceiling. In this way, the reason why the giants attack in this field may be to occupy the second position after Baidu, just like what 360 did on the PC side.

Zhang Chaoyang of Sohu said that Sogou Search will be fully integrated into all Tencent product lines, including QQ, Qzone, Tencent.com, QQ Browser, QQ Website Navigation, Mobile QQ Browser, etc. This seems very good, but when you think of Soso, which was dumped to Sogou, you know that challenging Baidu in the field of mobile search is just wishful thinking.

However, after facing challenges, mobile search may be able to usher in new developments; but it is not clear what path to take.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.