Qihoo Alliance Offensive Targets Baidu 奇虎掀起联姻潮 欲与百度试比高
Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) is stepping up its challenge to Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) dominance in online search, with word that the security software specialist has formed a new alliance with leading online travel firm Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP). (English article; Chinese article) This new alliance appears to be part of a clever tactic by Qihoo to form new tie-ups with Internet companies that specifically want to see more competition in the Chinese search market and thus are willing to work closely with Qihoo as it embarks on a new online search initiative. Accordingly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more such announcements in the months ahead as Qihoo tries to build up its So.com search engine as a viable alternative to Baidu’s own service that now controls around three-quarters of the market.
Let’s look at the latest news, which has Qihoo forming a wide-ranging alliance with Ctrip that will help link the 2 companies’ users and products more closely. That presumably includes preferable treatment for Ctrip on Qihoo’s recently launched search site, which is rapidly climbing in the rankings as it vies with others seeking to challenge Baidu’s dominance ,including Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) Soso.com and Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sougou, as well as the Chinese version of Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Bing.com.
In fact, this new alliance appears to be one of perhaps many that Qihoo is pursuing in its challenge to Baidu. A source tells me that Qihoo is pursuing a similar tie-up with Shanda Cloudary, the literature unit of online entertainment company Shanda Interactive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Qihoo is talking with other companies as well about similar alliances. Qihoo could find particular interest in such tie-ups from web companies that want to see Baidu’s dominance end in online search, and also from a wide range of companies that don’t like Baidu for other reasons.
Qihoo launched its So.com search site just 2 months ago, using some innovative concepts including a function that allows users to conduct integrated searches from a number of different sites with just a single query. (previous post) Later Qihoo added another function similar to Facebook’s “like” function, allowing users to rate websites in order to improve results. I’m not usually a big fan of Qihoo due to some of its previous underhanded business practices, but I’ve been watching this latest search initiative with interest as it really does seem to be gaining some quick traction with this innovative string of new approaches.
A quick glance at the data for my own blog shows that So.com has quickly risen to become one of the top search engines for traffic referrals. After just 2 months in business, So.com already sends more traffic to my blog than the much older Soso, Sougou and Bing sites, though it is still well behind Baidu.
One potential danger from this new string of tie-ups is that they could ultimately undermine So.com’s credibility if people start to believe, for example, that So.com favors Ctrip over rival travel sites like eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) and Qunar. But in the meantime, look for So.com to continue its rapid rise, perhaps pairing or even merging with one of the older Chinese search engines as it mounts its challenge to Baidu’s dominance.
Bottom line: Qihoo’s new alliance with Ctrip marks the start of a wave of new tie-ups that could help the company in its bid to challenge Baidu in the online search market.
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