Came here to find out about China search engine market share in 2025? You landed on the right page.
China has inarguably the world’s biggest consumer market, with one billion of its 1.4 billion total population on the internet.
But unlike many countries using Google as their main information source, China’s search engine market share looks entirely different.
And this is where it gets interesting! Tune in until the end of the article to find out interesting details about the country’s internet search landscape.
For all its worth, many technology fans are curious about what China search engine market share looks like.
Well, the pursuit of an answer to the mystery is exciting in itself.
There are five leading companies with a stronghold in the Chinese search engine market share namely Baidu, Sogou, Shenma, Haosuo, Youdou.
As can be observed, China’s search engine market looks entirely different from other countries.
Homegrown technology companies dominate the market as the country’s strict internet censorship continues to take place.
Baidu’s Chinese Market Dominance
Baidu has maintained a stronghold in China search engine market since its entrance in the early 2000s.
But there has been a dramatic change in the country’s search engine landscape lately, especially among desktop-initiated searches.
Take a look at Baidu’s market share in China’s desktop and mobile users from 2016 to 2021, as reported in StatCounter:
Baidu lost a significant presence in the desktop search engine market in the five-year timeline.
The technology giant had been accused of manipulating searches by directing organic traffic toward its homegrown subsidiary, Baidu Baijiahao.
- 2016 – Baidu captured 61.28% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
- 2017 – captured 59.47% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
- 2018 – captured 64.64% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
- 2019 – captured 48.32% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
- 2020 – captured 41.78% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
- 2021 – captured 30.01% of China’s overall desktop search market share during the year
Meanwhile, it has maintained a very strong presence in the mobile search engine market. It currently runs a near-monopolistic hold among the country’s total mobile searches.
- 2016 – Baidu captured 86.53% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
- 2017 – captured 83.97% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
- 2018 – captured 69.74% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
- 2019 – captured 79.96% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
- 2020 – captured 86.63% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
- 2021 – captured 95.23% of China’s overall mobile search engine market share during the year
Based on the latest data, Baidu’s mobile market share bottomed in 2018, the year Shenma’s influence grew to 22%.
Nevertheless, the tech giant recurred all its losses during the pandemic and now runs 95% of the country’s total search engine market.
While Baidu enjoys dominance in the mobile search engine market, Sogou is swiftly taking a lead among desktop users.
Sogou, directly translating to “Search Dog,” is under the watch of one of the biggest tech conglomerates in China, Tencent. The latter acquired the search engine in 2020 fo $3.5 billion.
Today, Sogou commands the country’s desktop search engine market share, holding 50% of the total searches in 2021.
- 2016 – Sogou captured 6.20% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2017 – captured 3.96% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2018 – captured 4.99% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2019 – captured 31.22% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2020 – captured 38.13% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2021 – captured 34.04% of China’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
Google in China
To address the elephant in the room, Google still operates in China albeit with reduced services.
Under its subsidiary, Google China, Google’s mainstream offerings are blocked by the Great Firewall or the country’s strict internet regulation.
Today, Google China maintains a 5% share in the country’s desktop search engine market share. Take a look at its performance over the years:
- 2016 – Google China occupies 5.68% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2017 – had 4.57% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2018 – had 6.37% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2019 – had 7.40% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2020 – had 6.83% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
- 2021 – had 5.18% of the country’s total desktop search engine market share during the year
Google exited the Chinese market in 2010 due to cyberattack claims.
In the past years, Alphabet adamantly expressed its lack of plans to build back its presence in the country again.
China’s Great Firewall Explained
China is known for taking internet censorship seriously – this is the reason why popular social media applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, among others, are barred an entrance its borders.
China’s Great Firewall is an initiative started in 1996 to block content that the Chinese government considers “inappropriate” for the general population.
Aside from big social media companies, some other platforms affected by the Great Firewall include:
- Netflix
- Discord
- Zoom
There is heavy censorship on the country’s information sector, resulting in the banning of several news sites such as those listed below:
- BBC
- The Economist
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
Conclusion
China search engine market share is interesting as it is entirely different from what most of the countries in the world have.
It is worth pointing out that Google’s minimal presence in the country is the reason many internet users are curious to know what it looks like and which companies are dominant players in the field.
