Google Signs Tenth Chinese Agent

Global search engine giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced yesterday that it has signed its tenth officially authorized agent in China - Fujian Web Business Network Technology Industry Co., Ltd. Fujian Web Business will act as an agent to sell Google AdWords keyword advertising services in the Quanzhou region of Fujian Province.

This move, following last month's sale of Google's 2% stake in Baidu, once again demonstrates its determination to independently expand its business in China. Global Vice President and Co-President of Greater China at Google, Zhou Shaoning, stated that Google will continue to expand its authorized agent program.

If advertisers use Google AdWords keyword advertising services, when users input search keywords matching the advertisement content, sponsored links will appear on the right side of the webpage. The Quanzhou region is one of the industrial clusters for China's textile and apparel enterprises, and Google AdWords keyword advertising services will help these companies promote their products globally.

Zhou Shaoning said, "In less than a year, Google has developed ten authorized agents in China." Currently, Google has preliminarily established a system to provide domestic enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with low-cost, high-efficiency online marketing and promotion services. An increasing number of domestic SMEs are uncovering more potential customers through online marketing promotions, bringing their products to the national and even global markets. Zhou Shaoning also mentioned,

According to data from Analysys International's "First Quarter 2006 China Search Engine Market Tracking Report," the scale of the domestic search engine market reached 3.03 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, with Google only accounting for 13.2%, trailing behind Baidu (43.9%) and Yahoo (21.1%). Such results are obviously not what Google is willing to accept. Analysts at Analysys International pointed out that Google will further demonstrate its confidence in its Chinese operations.