Search Engine Strategies - Xiamen China

Note From Rand: I asked David Temple, who's language skills and background in search and all things China make him an excellent candidate for the job, to provide coverage of several of the sessions at SES China in Xiamen. The following is his formal recap of events:

Search Engine Strategies China was held in the beautiful resort town of Xiamen on May 24 - 25. 

KEYNOTE

Yvonne Chang, China Yahoo and Alibaba Vice President, was interviewed by Chris Sherman and Inway Ni for the Keynote address. Mr. Ni asked Ms. Chang to search for her name on Yahoo and she noted his blog was ranked #1 for that search. Ms. Chang told the audience she would speak in Chinese, a popular move considering 95% of the audience was Chinese. She said that her previous position was Vice President of Yahoo! Kimo in Taiwan. The total spent on on-line advertising accounted for only 4% of total advertising budgets, but when she left it had grown to 8%.

Ms. Chang said that Yahoo wanted to forge a new trail in China and that they can't follow the western model because China is so unique. She mentioned that there isn't a real leader in the China market and a leader should "make the pie larger." She stated that Jack Ma said if Yahoo is going to win it has to do it in a new way. One way is to focus Yahoo as a business portal. Yahoo is a symbol of China's huge market and an indicator of where the world is moving. When asked about Panama, Ms. Chang noted that, like the Panama canal, it will connect the ancient civilization to the modern civilization. They want to turn Yahoo into the leader of a new era. She said Panama is very sophisticated, much like a jet aircraft that even though they have a fire in one engine, the other engines takes over. She said "Panama is a win-win-win model for the user, advertiser and Yahoo."

Mr. Sherman asked about those just starting out in search and Ms. Chang replied, "If you open a shop you try to find the best location, so you do the same on the Internet." He then asked where Yahoo is headed and she replied, "First we are user-centric and will continue to focus on the user. Secondly, we have no shareholder pressure so we can do things others can't, and lastly, we will overcome the challenges ahead."

BUYING MULTI SEARCH ADVERTISING

The moderator ws RQ Zen, President of TimeV. First up was Willy Yang, President of Allyes AdNetwork. Mr. Yang said they've developed a highly complex mathematical formula that lets them see exactly what to expect when paying for search. The top position isn't always the best, and he gave an example that "plasma tv" worked well in the top position but "tv" worked better in the second position.

Next to speak was Sophie Hsieh, VP Asia SEO. Asia SEO is based out of Taiwan. Ms. Hsieh noted that selecting keywords was the most important strategy in developing an SEM campaing. She also mentioned that Taiwan has several search engines and the competition is fierce, but that was good news for the advertisers as they have more choices. Integrating online and offline is critical, and she showed a TV ad that mentioned the keyword often.

The next presenter was Jim Zhang, Marketing Director for Search Frontier. He, said that only 33% of users think that search engines are providing a good experience. He also noted that if you only use one search engine to advertise on the cost is very high, and you should test a variety of search engines.

BUYING MOBILE SEARCH

The Moderator was Max Huang, Founde of Digitalwall. The first presenter was Jason Yin, Maninging Director of In-Stat China. He said that China is a mobile country and even some homeless people have a mobile phone. He added that in 2005 there were 8.2 million mobile search users who searched at least once a month. That number grew to 16 million by 2006. Those who searched at least once a week grew from 1.9 million in 2005 to 4.2 million in 2006. The greatest obstacles to mobile search in China (according to an April 2007 survey) were slow speed and irrelevant results. In addition, there is not enough content for mobile phones and SMEs aren't getting involved.

Next up was Alvin Wang Graylin of mInfo. Mr. Graylin said they focus on natural language search. He pointed out that the wireless market is growing very fast. People are spending more money on travel, and the communication marketing is the largest in the world. A huge obstacle to the growth of mobile search is that screens are too small. You can't copy the model of the Internet viewed on a large monitor. He added that 3G is important but won't be rolled out until late 2008, and China shouldn't rely exclusively on 3G but should use a multiplatform. He said it is wrong to rely on keywords or links since no one can precisely match keywords and there is no time to check all the links. He also said that longer queries can drive more accurate answers. The most searched on categories were shopping, ringtones and games.

Gang Li from Nokia was last to present. He said that mobile search will surpass Internet search in the near future and agrees that search should be personalized on mobile phones. He added that people in China check their phones as soon as the rise in the morning before anything else. One way that mobile search will grow is by offering a payment system tied to the user's mobile phone. Adding GPS will provide info based on your location.