Chinese internet uses 'polarised around search engines'

11th September 2007

A survey of internet users in China has concluded that most have become polarised around one or two search engines.

According to the IDC report, Google and Baidu are the two top search engines in the country.

Google is most likely to be used by college educated web surfers, while Baidu is popular with students, the study concluded.

Just over 47 per cent of respondents said they had used good, while more then 87 per cent had used Baidu.

Internet shopping is a hugely popular use of online facilities in China, with nine out of ten respondents saying they would be buying something online in the coming year.

Jacky Huang of IDC noted that there has been a large increase in residential broadband internet subscribers over the past year.

These have gained access "to a wealth of more advanced applications and services," she added.

Google was recently found to be the most popular search engine with US users in a Nielsen/NetRatings study.