Warc, 29 April 2014
BEIJING: Alibaba, the Chinese internet giant, and its
partner UCWeb, the mobile browser business, have introduced a new mobile search
engine – Shenma – as they aim to tap into China's huge base of smartphone
users.
"Every commonly used search engine in the marketplace
today was developed for the desktop, and offers a mobile interface that is only
skin deep," said Yu Yongfu, UCWeb's Chairman and CEO, in remarks reported
by the Financial Times. "Mobile search is a new area, there is no king.
Everyone is at the same starting line," he added.
That last claim may be a slight exaggeration as UCWeb's
flagship product, UC Browser, had a 65% share of China's mobile browser market
in 2013, as well as a leading 32% share in India, and more than 500m users
worldwide. It is also in a position to speed take-up of Shenma by making it the
default search engine on its browser app, ahead of Baidu, Google, Yicha and Taobao.
Launching the product, he declared: "We believe the
internet will be centred around [the] mobile rather than desktop browser."
He expected that by the end of 2014 mobile search queries would surpass desktop
search queries as around half a billion Chinese consumers were now smartphone
users.
"By taking a mobile-first approach to search, Shenma
will integrate search technology into the full scope of user experiences,"
he stated. In practical terms this meant offering more streamlined searching
for mobile apps alongside better integration with Alibaba's e-commerce
services.
Shenma is targeted at users of Baidu, currently China's
leading search engine with, according to Analysys International, a 72% share of
the mobile market.
Announcing first quarter results last week, Baidu's chief
financial officer Jennifer Li, noted: "Customer adoption of the mobile
search product is really terrific. Mobile revenue growth is really the
strongest and fastest growth sector."
Data sourced from Financial Times, Bloomberg, IDG, UCWeb;
additional content by Warc staff
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