Search Engine Marketing Share around the World from US, Europe and Asia

I have been asked this question many many times internally and externally so i decided to spend some time today to gather as much data as i can.
The focus of this blog has always been SouthEast Asia and North Asia. However, in order to give a broader picture, i will cover as many territories where reliable data is available as possible.

In this post i will cover:

• First part: Search Engine Market Share in various markets around the world: US, UK, France, German, Russia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China, India, Australia, Singapore and the rest of Asean (Oct2008)
  
• Second part: Comments on Searches volume and searches per searcher in APAC.
  

1. Search Engine Market Share in US Oct 2008

• Google sites: 63.1% (or 7.971 billion searches out of total 12.642 billion searches for Oct 2008)
• Yahoo! sites: 20.5% (or 2.589 billion searches)
• Microsoft sites: 8.5% (or 1.080 billion searches)
• Other smaller search engines
  

Note: Data from comScore

2. Search Engine Market Share in UK Oct 2008

• Google sites: 89.44%
• Yahoo sites: 2.86%
• Ask.com sites: 2.16%

Data from Hitwise UK for October 2008 based on volume of searches

3. Search Engine Market Share in France for Aug 2008

• Google sites: 82% (or 2.05 billion searches out of total 2.5 billion searches for Aug 2008)
• Microsoft sites: 2.7%
• Groupe Pages Jaunes: 2.7% (Yellow pages in France)
• Yahoo sites: 2.3%
• Other smaller search engines

Data from comScore: Top 10 French Search properties

4. Search Engine Market Share in German in Aug 2008

• Google sites: 79.8% (3.022 billion searches out of total 3.790 billion searches for Jul 2008)
• eBay: 6.1% ( 0.230 billion searches)
• Other smaller search engines

Data from comScore: Top 10 German Search Properties

5. Search Engine Market Share in Russia in Feb 2008

• Yandex: 47.4%
• Google sites: 31.2%
• Rambler Media: 9.7%
• Mail.Ru sites: 7%
• Other smaller search engines

Data from comScore: Top 10 Russian Search Engines

6. Search Engine Market share in Japan in Sept 2008

• Yahoo! Sites: 51.2% (or 3.012 billion searches out of total 5.879 billion searches for Sept 2008)
• Google sites: 39.0% ( or 2.294 billion searches)
• Rakuten Inc: 2% (or 0.12 billion searches)
• Other smaller search engines

Note:

• Data from comScore: Top Search Properties in Japan
  
• Total number of searches in Japan excludes searches from public computers such as internet cafes
• Google number include searches done on YouTube

7. Search Engine Market Share in Korea

• Naver.cim site: 77%
• Daum.net site: 10.8%
  
• Yahoo site: 4.4%
• Google site: 1.7%

Data from KoreanClick, an Internet market research company

8. Search Engine Market Share in Hong Kong

Again, there is no data form Hitwise, comScore available for public. However, from my experience of running PPC campaigns over there, the marketshare for Yahoo is about 80% and Google is less than 15%

9. Search Engine Market Share in China 2008

• Baidu sites: 63.4% to 65.8%
• Google sites: 22%

Data from market analysis firms: China IntelliConsulting Coporation and Analysys International

10. Search Engine Market Share in India in June 2008

• Google sites: 81.4% (1.0111 billion searches out of 1.242 billion searches during June 2008)
• Yahoo sites: 9.4% (117 billion searches)
• Ask Network: 1.9%
  
• Other smaller search engines

Data from comScore: Top search properties in India June 2008

11. Search Engine Market Share in Australia in Oct 2008

• Google sites: 90.57%
• Live.com (Microsoft sites): 3.83%
• Yahoo sites: 2.30%

Data from Hitwise - Leading Search Engine in Australia Oct 2008

12. Search Engine Market Share in Singapore Oct 2008

• Google Sites: 69.75%
• Yahoo sites: 23.53%

Data from Hitwise - Leading Search Engine in Singapore

13. Search Engine Market Share in MY, TH, VN, PH, ID

Well there are no reliable sources to verify the exact percentage for each country. My personal understanding of each market is as below

• Vietnam: Google leads with more than 90% of the market share
• Thailand: same situation, Google's search market share should be more than 90%
• MY, PH and Indonesia: Google should have at least 50% of the search market share

14. Asia Pacific Search Overview

First of all, according to comScore, Asia Pacific region has the largest unique searchers and largest volume of search queries in the world (out of 5 regions reported by comScore):
There were 29 billion searches conducted in Sept 2008 and this number is growing, which shows us the enormous potential for search engine marketing.
This number for Jul 2008 and April 2008 were 27.059 billion and 22.363 billion respectively.

Below are the graphs representing searches conducted in some countries in Asia Pacific from April to Sept



























We saw the most increase from China and Australia. Most of other countries, the search volume stays relatively the same.

Country	Searches (Millions) in April	Searches (Millions) in July	Searches (Millions) in Sept
China	6,233	10994	12758
Japan	6160	6162	5879
Korea	2139	2101	2303
India	1209	1192	1169
Australia	851	855	977
Taiwan	698	748	618
Malaysia	385	431	405
Hong Kong	256	228	199
Singapore	170	152	171
New Zealand	146	136	135

Above is the same information but in absolute values.

Those people who search online, they conducted on average 84.7 searches per person in September 2008

Country	Searches per Searcher in April	Searches per Searcher in July	Searches per Searcher in Sept
China	75	76.7	85.5
Japan	102.6	100.8	96.2
Korea	103.5	102.8	109.3
India	55.4	51	51
Australia	97.7	102	114.6
Taiwan	70.7	74.8	63.5
Malaysia	54.3	64.2	65.2
Hong Kong	88.1	81	71.8
Singapore	100.9	91.2	105.6
New Zealand	88.5	87.2	90.1

Singapore, Australia and Korea lead the way in terms of searches per searcher with more than 100 searches per searcher per month or at least 3 per day. This shows that the savvy audience increasingly depends on search for their daily activities.

In conclusion, the use of search engine is becoming an inseparable part of daily urban life. No matter where you are, people use Search Engines.
The opportunity for Search Engine Marketing in Asia Pacific region is enormous with its huge audience (online internet users) and the volume of searches conducted.
The ball is now on advertisers' court to see how they can take advantage of this opportunity to reach out to an ever increasing audience who's constantly looking for information online using Search Engines.

How SEO will be like in 2009

Hi guys,

Just spotted a couple of good videos from WebProNews.com reporting about the interview with Bruce Clay and Matt Cutts at the recent PubCon in Las Vegas.
While Bruce Clay talked about personalized search, behavior based, intent - based (ecommerce intent/search with intent to register/buy/booking) search and universal search, Matt Cutts covered ranking, personalized search, universal search as well.

One thing that both of them cover is the important of web analytics behind Search Engine Optimization, to make sure it's not just about ranking but rather results/conversions/loyal customers etc...

For these videos, please visit:

Conventional Search Engine Ranking will be buried deep in the clay

and

What Google's Matt Cutts sees in 2009

Cheers,
Chandler

Tips on Business Travel to Ho Chi Minh city

Today post will be about What you need to know if you have to travel to Ho Chi Minh City for business.

If you haven't noticed yet, i am a Vietnamese. I have been in Singapore for more than 6 years. I travel back to Ho Chi Minh city quite often so i guess i can offer some insights to those who have never been to Vietnam before and suddenly find themselves have to do presentation to direct clients/agencies in Ho Chi Minh city.

To foreigners, there are basically two main cities in Vietnam that most business travelers go to: Ha Noi (in the north) and Ho Chi Minh city (or Saigon, in the south).
The flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh city is about 2 hours max. Flight to Ha Noi on the other hand is about 3 to 3.5 hours.
Since most of businesses from Singapore prefer Ho Chi Minh city, I will only write about Ho Chi Minh city in this post.

1. Visa to Vietnam:

If you are Singaporean or from SouthEast Asia countries (except the Philippines), you won't need visa to go to Vietnam. You can stay up to 30 days each time.
If you are from other countries, you have to apply for Visa at the Vietnamese embassy or apply online and get your visa upon landing. Most expats in Singapore choose to get landing visa.

It's fairly easy to go online, apply for Visa, get a pre approved letter, present the letter to the immigration officer at Ho Chi Minh city and get your visa.
You will have to pay around US $25 for your landing visa though.

2. Airlines to Ho Chi Minh city

You can have a variety of choices: Singapore Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Budget Airlines like (Tiger Airways, JetStar ...)
There are many daily flights to Ho Chi Minh city from Singapore. Normally for business travelers, you can either take the early flight from Singapore, land in Ho Chi Minh city at about 8.30 am local time and start your day or you can take the late night flight from the day before.
Meetings in Vietnam normally start at around 10.00 am onwards so you are fine with the early morning flight.

Air Ticket

The air ticket is fairly cheap, from SGD $250 (budget airlines) to $400 or more for a round ticket including taxes.

3. Hotels in Ho Chi Minh city

Booking a hotel in Ho Chi Minh city is quite easy. However, most hotels (even 5 star hotels) do not accept Online booking using credit card so you can only send inquiries and they will confirm through email.
Alternatively, you can book with Travel Aggregators like Asiarooms or Agoda.
Or you can ask your local partners to help.

Booking directly with hotels normally cost more than booking through Travel Aggregators. However, you have the freedom of choices.

Some of the more high end hotels in District 1 ( Central Business District area) include Continental, Rex, Sheraton, Caravelle etc...
I actually prefer a 3 star hotel named Victory since i often spend most of the day outside. Even though it's a 3 star hotel, the room is big enough for two and very clean. The price is not cheap though, around SGD $80/night.

4. Taxi in Ho Chi Minh city

I only use MaiLinh or Vinasun taxi whenever i am in Ho Chi Minh city. They charge by meter and so far i have great experience with them. Their logos are both green so it's quite easy to recognize them. Please don't use taxi from unknown brands because they will rip you off.
As long as you stick to MaiLink or Vinasun, i think you will be fine.

It takes about 30 minutes taxi from the airport to district 1 so if you land at around 8.30 am, it's safe to set up meeting at 10. It costs about $8-9 Singapore dollars from the airport to District 1.

5. Meetings in Ho Chi Minh city

Vietnamese are generally very open and respectful so you don't need to worry about any big cultural differences. Singapore is currently the model that Vietnam wants to adopt. Many managers from big companies or agencies in Vietnam visited Singapore many times before.

However, the way Vietnamese doing business is slower than Westerners. You can't just go to a meeting, present and then hope to secure the deal.

Meeting in Ho Chi Minh starts fairly punctual. Yet it can last much longer than initially anticipated. If you can normally do 3 meetings/day in Singapore, you probably should only set up 2 meetings in Ho Chi Minh city.

Traffic in Ho Chi Minh is generally bad outside of the CBD area, with traffic jam everyday (except the way to the airport) so you should leave early for any meetings outside of the CBD.

Language may be an issue

While many directors of big firms/agencies in Ho Chi Minh city can speak English fairly well, their subordinates may not.
Be prepare to repeat yourself a couple of times and speak much slower than usual.

Many tag along

One thing i find quite strange is that there are many tag along for meetings.
It's not like in Singapore where only people who need to be there attend the meeting, or people who can add some value.
That's probably why in most meetings i've had so far in Ho Chi Minh city, there are normally rooms full of people.

6. Local food in Ho Chi Minh city/ Bars

Ask your Vietnamese counterparts and i am sure they can show you plenty of places for good food.
One thing to take note though is that the price is quite expensive in Ho Chi Minh. I feel that it's comparable to the price in Singapore, unless you really know where to go.
If you are on business trip, most probably you would spend the same amount you spend on food here in Singapore.

As for Bars and other night life activities....
Well, the good thing about HCM city is that it sleeps very late. Bars/Super Place normally open until 2, 3 or 4 am. People in Ho Chi Minh like to enjoy life so after work they will go partying :)

That's pretty much what you need to know to go on a business trip in Ho Chi Minh even for first timers. You don't have to worry about pick pocket or people harassing you too much on the street or anything. However, please note that Vietnam time is 1 hour behind Singapore time :)

Good night,
Chandler