Monday 9am Chicago

[This is live blogging, please excuse typos!]

The room seats about 200 people and there is one plug (I have it). 

Kevin Ryan is moderating; I wonder if I can meet him

Motoko Hunt:

Japan: Mobile is bigger than PC.  WoM (Word of Mouth) is also successful.  Little toolbar size searc boxes are everywhere.  Many language issues: no spaces btw words!, multiple translations for one English keyword, etc.

T. R. Harrington:

China:  Baidu (www.Baidu.com) is the market leader - 70% market share -(not Google).  Apparently Baidu has just opened up access to its API.  Paid results are shown first - in the results column!  SEO can be quite challenging in Asian countries like Japan and China.  In China, traffic estimation tools do not even exist!

Erica Schmidt:

Australia:  Australia is unique!  (2 years behind the U.S.)  Broadband availability is an issue )in NZ too, I am told.  Google.com.au 72%, Google.com 17% (89% total), Yahoo! 4%, MSN 4%, and 3% “all other.”  Ah yes, “all other.”   Note: respect the cultural differences btw Australia and the U.S.

Panel:

In Japan, Blogs *are* the Word of Mouth that users consult before they purchase.  [Perhaps Omgili needs an Asian version!  See also Blog Search Engines?] [square brackets are me.]  In China, demand for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is greater than availability of services, “in house” sophistication is very low.  In Australia, where speed is slower, you need to keep you e-commerce chain”short and sweet!”

In China, they are many years behind the U.s., but their rate of adoption is very fast.

Australia - two years behind U.S.

In Japan, mobile purchases are small items like move tickets.  From the PC is where they buy larger ticket items.

[Sponsors: Google, MSN and Ask.com.   This set up is *way* expensive -except for lack of outlets - and no Alternative Search Engine could be a sponsor.  But, I still maintain that an organization of “Alts” could be a sponsor, e.g. one sponsor could be ”the Union of Alt Search Engines (UASE).”  Why not?  Wouldn’t that increase their visibility - isn’t that why trade organizations exist - in part?] Note to self: ASE conference in 2008 should address this possibility.

[ASE now has some great Asian/Pacific friends - Hi Mike! - Mr. Monday in Taiwan - Hong/Lexxe in Australia, “AP” in Singapore]  If you are interested in Asia/Pacific Search, please contact us.

[Do you have a question or comment about SES Chicago this week?  Just leave a regular comment after any of these posts.]

In Japan and the Philippines (www.yehey.com), many people don’t even own a PC - they only have a cell phone or PDA.  Well, 25+ probably would have both; 15-25 cell phone only.  Makes sense.

In China, Internet cafes are a big social activity. 

Panel has not addressed Korea and India (www.guruji.com).  All that “outsourcing” to India is just in particular areas of the country.  www.Naver.com is the big Korean SE.  We receive many local Alts from India, an indication of how geographically large the country is.

End of session one.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 11:08 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sphere: Related Content