【英语科技】谷歌在华搜索营收份额继续下滑

Google’s market share in China continues to slide as a reorganisation of the company’s distribution network takes its toll on search revenues.

The US company’s share of China online search revenues dropped from 27.3 per cent in the second quarter to 24.6 per cent in the third quarter, iResearch, a Beijing-based internet research house, said on Tuesday.

The drop continues the process triggered by Google’s stand-off with the Chinese government over censorship and the company’s partial retreat from the country this year.

The fall in market share came as Google restructured its sales distribution network, which it uses to sell Adwords, its main advertising product and source of revenue.

In late September, Google China terminated its contracts with seven companies based near Shanghai that had been selling ads on Google over the past four years. The termination will take effect on October 27 and Google has already started to select new agents to replace those it axed.

The overhaul is part of Google’s attempt to adjust its operations after it moved a large part of its online search from its mainland Chinese site to its Hong Kong site, where it is not required to censor results on behalf of the government.

According to the seven affected agents, they collectively account for Rmb150m ($22.5m) in advertising revenues. Analysts expect the reorganisation to have some impact on the US group’s sales.

“As Google has been overhauling its distribution channels, its ad customer relations will experience an adjustment over the two coming quarters and it will grow more slowly,” iResearch said.

The changes have also led to an angry backlash from the agents, who have protested against the cancellation of the contract and accused Google of treating them unfairly.

On a joint blog, the seven companies accused Google of putting their employees at risk of losing their jobs.

A spokesman for the agents said they had held a protest at Google’s offices on Monday night and Google had agreed to hold talks on Wednesday.

Google has not commented on the criticism and called the changes a business decision.

由于谷歌(Google)对分销网络的重组影响到搜索业务的营收，这家美国公司在中国的市场份额继续下滑。

总部位于北京的互联网研究公司iResearch周二表示，第三季度，谷歌占中国在线搜索营收份额从第二季度的27.3%下降至24.6%。

自从今年谷歌与中国政府就审查制度对峙、并部分退出中国后，谷歌的市场份额一直在持续下滑。

市场份额的下滑，部分是因为谷歌重组了负责销售其主要广告产品Adwords的分销网络，该产品是谷歌主要的营收来源。

在9月末，谷歌中国终止了与总部位于上海附近的7家公司之间的合同。这些公司在过去4年里一直在谷歌上销售广告。合同将于10月27日正式终止。谷歌已经开始着手选择新的代理商。

这一重大调整是谷歌在将其一大部分在线搜索业务从中国大陆站点转移至香港站点后，对业务进行重组的一部分。在香港，谷歌不需要代表政府对搜索结果进行审查。

据7家受影响的代理商表示，他们的广告营收合起来有1.5亿元人民币（合2250万美元）。分析师预计，改组将会对谷歌的销售产生一定影响。

iResearch表示：“随着谷歌对其分销渠道作出重大改变，其广告客户关系将在今后两个季度里经历一些调整，其增长将更为缓慢。”

这些变化也导致上述7家代理商作出愤怒反应，他们抗议合同被取消，并指责谷歌对他们不公。

在一个联合博客上，这7家公司指责谷歌此举置他们的员工于失业风险中。

这些代理商的一位发言人表示，他们周一晚间在谷歌办公室举行了抗议，谷歌已同意周三举行谈判。

谷歌未对这些指责置评，表示这些变动是一项经营决定。

译者/李裕